PIGOTT HALL, ROOM 216
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Guest speaker: Craig Epplin (Portland State University, Spanish)

Walking is integral to the practices of Belgian-born, Mexico City-based artist Francis Alÿs. His transient performances model the creation of ephemeral places, outlined by the limited reach of the human body and a few material extensions — ice, paint, and drumsticks, among others. These walks are laborious and dull, marked by futility and repetition. This low affective energy mirrors the process represented in these performances: the slow, uncertain emergence of places as fragile assemblages. These places are the result of alliances of diverse materials set in motion, and in placing this process on display, Alÿs’s works shed light on the critical possibilities of a pedestrian ecology — both within the arts and in spatial practice in general.

Craig Epplin is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Portland State University. His research centers on the intersection of media technology, the arts, and ecological transformations in contemporary Latin America. He is the author of Late Book Culture in Argentina (2014). He is at work on a second book, a study of cartography and aesthetics in contemporary Mexico. He also collaborates with Rattapallax magazine, where he edits the Furniture in Motion pamphlet series.