timezones/alys

www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/timezones


It's been quiet some time since I saw this exhibition. Back then I was a pure photographer and I originally visited Tate to see the exhibition of Robert Frank that was on during the same period.
My knowledge on video art was very limited and what I had seen was mostly experimental movies from artists like Jonas Mekas www.jonasmekas.com/ or Gregory Markopoulos www.ubu.com/film/markopoulos.html
And from what i had seen from this artists and other similar experimental video and film work was that the main concern was the form. Films were poetic, most of the times lyrical more like a beautiful impressionist's' canvas.
Although I appreciate experimental films as I do with impressionistic paintings, I don't favor them.
In timezones I was really impressed mainly by the work of Francis Alys: a central square in Mexico, the movement of the sun , the moving shadow of a tall flag in the middle of the square and the crowds moving with the shadow trying to find protection from the sun.
This long video and the photos taken during the day was one of the most moving things I 've ever seen before. Abstract, simple, about reallity, using reality to say everything about being human and living a life, illustrating the passing of time but also the endless repetition, the way everything is changing through time and at the same time nothing is changing, the way people walk away and other people come.
I remembered again this work some months ago while reflecting to what I'm doing now. I consider my work as recording found performances and I think that this work and many others that I've seen by Alys (the 'modern clown' in Modern Tate's permanent collection) (the work in parasol unit exhibition www.parasol-unit.org/current.htm) are exactly this, records of found performances.