Zócalo is the icon of how Alÿs transformed downtown Mexico City into an extension of his art studio, as well as into a conceptual theater. On May 22, 1999, in collaboration with filmmaker Rafael Ortega, Alÿs filmed the city’s main square in order to document a previously unconscious social form: the way in which passers-by, seeking shelter in the shade cast by the flagpole, form a human line that functions as a virtual sundial, which shifts by three degrees for each of the 12 hours of sunlight. This seeming miracle has become an enduring image of contemporary art in the region—and a key example of how Alÿs sought to transform community life through the emergence of an urban myth.


FRANCIS ALŸS (1959)
Zócalo, Ciudad de México, 22 de mayo, 1999, 1999–2017
Zócalo, Mexico City, May 22, 1999
Video installation. 36 pieces
Color video, stereo sound, 2 speakers, drawings and photographs
12 h
Acquisition through the SHCP Pago en Especie program, 2018