- Artist or Maker
- Francis Alÿs
Belgium, active Mexico, Mexico City, born 1959 - Title
- Beggars (Mendigos)
- Date Made
- 2002-2004
- Medium
- (Eighty) slides, slide carousel
- Dimensions
- Dimensions variable
- Accession Number
- M.2007.47.1-.8
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
The images document people pleading for money at the entrances to the Mexico City subway. The perspective of seeing the subjects from above reinforces notions of hierarchy: the viewer is the silent voyeur, placed at a safe distance from the beggars, who steals a furtive glimpse of the pitiful underside of urban life.
Ilona Katzew, 2008