Francis Alÿs: When Faith Moves Mountains, Lima, Peru, April 11, 2002
Video installation
Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp

500 volunteers answered an invitation by the artist to pick up a shovel to displace by a few centimetres a large sand dune near the slums surrounding Lima. The project constitutes an ‘epic answer’, a ‘fine gesture’ on the part of the artist towards the miserable situation in Peru. The hope involved in moving a mountain is at the same time futile and heroic, absurd and necessary. When Faith Moves Mountains gives shape to a new local history and mythology. With this image (the moving of a mountain) the artist gives shape to the notion of hope.