A 2008 performance by Francis Alÿs of two human chains of children stretching from Europe to Africa and from Africa to Europe, across the Strait of Gibraltar, releasing a flotilla of sandals-turned-sailboats.
The Gibraltar project reflected Alÿs’ wish to fall back upon poetics, and marked a return to the way children’s fantasies relate to contemporary history.
Whereas an actual attempt to close the Strait of Gibraltar by means of, say, a bridge of cargo ships would have entailed a shift from artistic practice into engineering, the absence of a bridge in Alÿs’ project permits a narrative in which shoes become vessels and children turn into mythical giants.
Don’t cross the bridge before you get to the river on Francis Alÿs’ website