Overview
The Strait of Gibraltar is 7.7 nautical miles wide (13 km) and separates Africa from Europe. If a line of kids leaves Europe and heads towards Morocco, and a line of kids leaves Africa and heads towards Spain, will the two lines meet in the chimera of the horizon? Francis Al.s’ Gibraltar project is peculiar: a peculiar place was chosen, a plot was written, an event took place in real time with real people and cameras recorded an imaginary meeting. There is a story but no happy ending. There is a fable but no moral. All the artist has is a mise en situation.
Courtesy of the Artist
2013
This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 11
Credits
In collaboration with Julien Devaux, Rafael Ortega, Felix Blume, Ivan Bocara, Jimena Blasquez, Roberto Rubalcava, Begoña Rey, Abbas Benhnin and the kids of Tarifa and Tangier.
Project Images
Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River
Francis Alÿs
2011
Videos, paintings, drawings, sculpture, photographic installation
Dimensions variable
Installation view
Photo by Alfredo Rubio
Related
Alÿs, Francis
Francis Alÿs explores issues ranging from political structures and transnational boundaries to questions of how the individual makes sense of social representations and cultural mythologies.
March Meeting 2013: Towards a New Cultural Cartography
This publication takes as its starting point Yuko Hasegawa’s curatorial concept for Sharjah Biennial 11: Re:Emerge – Towards a New Cultural Cartography and March Meeting 2013.