The Logbook of Gibraltar

The Logbook of Gibraltar at Art Sonje Center in Seoul was Francis Alÿs’s first solo exhibition in Korea. Among other works, the show included Don’t Cross the Bridge Before you get to the River (2006-2008), an important example of the artist’s engagement with anthropological and geopolitical contexts using poetic means. Presented as a multi-media installation encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture, and video, the project documents how, as Alÿs explains, "A line of kids each carrying a boat made out of a shoe leaves Europe in the direction of Morocco, while a second line of kids with shoe-boats leaves Africa in the direction of Spain. The two lines will meet on the horizon." This public action organized by the artist, which took place on August 12, 2008, represented not an actual attempt to bridge the Strait of Gibraltar, but instead an imaginative one in which shoes become mythical vessels, and children are giants.