In order to understand the hype surrounding Mexico City-based artist Francis Alys, the first thing you should know is that he can move mountains. Literally.
Alys deployed a single-file line of 500 shoveling volunteers to displace a sand dune a mere 10 centimeters. It may sound like a ludicrous task, but Alys’ final product, a photo documentation of the event that took place in Lima, Peru, is making serious waves on the international circuit.
Re-presented as a video projection of the photographs, “When Faith Moves Mountains” (2002) is one of 11 video works selected for the UCLA Hammer Museum exhibition “Francis Alys: Politics of Rehearsal.”
This is the artist’s first large-scale museum exhibition in the United States. Along with the video projection, four small paintings, dozens of drawings and a handful of sculptural objects will also be on display starting this Sunday.
Viewing “When Faith Moves Mountains” at first glance, the serpentine line of workers raking away at the sand dune slip face appear to document a prison chain gang out for a day of community service.
A second look, however, reveals that the enormous task at hand is not an act of compulsory repentance but rather a collaborative team effort to achieve the seemingly impossible.
And Alys had even broader applications in mind when he moved the dune.
“(The exhibition) is a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors or parables,” said Alys. “(It is) staging the experience of time in Latin America.”
This metaphorical reflection on modernity in Latin America can be expressed in one phrase: “maximo esfuerzado, minimo resultado” or maximum effort, minimal result.
Alys’ works explore the considerable political, economic and cultural strife a country must endure to achieve any small apparent progress.
“The mountain really was moved, and I think the implication was that if enough people work collectively together, we can achieve things that are really difficult or impossible,” said Russell Ferguson, chair of the UCLA Department of Art and adjunct curator at the Hammer Museum, who organized the exhibition.
“And of course that particular action doesn’t achieve anything in a direct political way, but it creates an image that can be used politically,” he said.
Alys, a 49-year-old Belgium native, moved to Mexico City in 1986 where he soon shifted his focus away from his original training in architecture to a broader visual arts practice.
Working with a wide range of media including painting, drawing, performance, film, video installation, animation and photography, Alys has emerged as one of today’s most important working artists.
The selection of works for this exhibit focuses on the theme of repetition as well as visual storytelling and performance. His work is at first simple and easily accessible, but its philosophical and metaphorical significance resonates a deeper complexity.
His film “Rehearsal 1″ (1999) shows a red Volkswagen climbing a steep hill in Tijuana, Mexico, in sync with the recording of a danzon band rehearsing a new song. Each time the band stumbles and breaks off, the car’s driver (Alys) gives up and the car rolls down the hill again.
“Rehearsal 2″ (2001) shows a woman performing a striptease to the music of a piano player and singer. Each time the musicians stop, the woman begins to put her clothes back on.
“It’s a similar idea of delayed gratification. It takes a long time to get, or maybe we never get to the climax of the performance. She’s doing something that never reaches a final conclusion,” said Ferguson.
“Song for Lupita” (1998) is an animated film loop of a woman pouring water back and forth between two glasses. “Paradox of Praxis” (1999) documents Alys pushing a block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melts into nonexistence.