Guards (2004–2005) is an action organized and documented by Francis Alÿs early one Sunday morning.Sixty-four members of the royal guard (Coldstream Guards) walk individually throughout the city of London,unaware of each other’s itineraries. As they wander about, they gradually locate several of their mates; falling into step, they continue to search for other guards until all sixty-four have reassembled, and are marching in an 8×8 formation. The video is increasingly animated by their thundering, rhythmic steps. The square formation approaches a nearby bridge, and disintegrates as the guards begin to cross it. Alÿs, who observes the action and keeps intervening as if it were taking place in a huge open-air studio, thus maps the city (be it London or Mexico City), staging elusive scenes and creating animation works and poetic films. He questions the notion of individuality and the construction of groups – the transitional point between an individual and a unit. The boots thundering on the pavement in Guards are also the subject of a second video titled Shoeshine (2005), in which a member of the Coldstream Guards obsessively polishes the boots of his gala uniform before going onstage.