Mi Gran Obra (Tate Modern)

Mi Gran Obra is roughly translated as My Great Work. And with a title like that, it sounds like David Espinosa’s art installation/performance piece for the London International Mime Festival might be a sweeping epic: a vast, once-in-a-lifetime, make-or-break life’s work. It sounds big.

In reality, though, it’s very, very small. Set on a white table-top, Espinosa moves teeny-tiny model people around to music while an audience look at the action through binoculars.Through our lenses we see teensy humans: humans being born, humans having sex, humans hanging about. It's playful, colourful and a lot like a stop-animation movie.

Despite the fact that they are little immovable figures, Espinosa’s painted people are full of life. He introduces us first to a man and a woman, initially as babies, who grow – one model is put in front of the other – until laid out in front of us is their story. From birth to death via love, marriage, work, children and mourning.

It’s a sweet and whimsical look at the nature of being human. These miniatures reflect our own lives which look both poignant and perhaps a little laughable that small. But Mi Gran Obra is not created with cynicism, the piece is like a magnifying glass, enhancing the ebbs and flows of life. It also zooms in on the dark side of human nature. Espinosa turns several of his scenes – a warm day in a town where people sit, read and eat – into something much more macabre. As an upturned car is placed into the vista, a sunbather suddenly becomes a crash victim.

Mi Gran Obra is slight at 55 minutes, and it loses focus, becoming less a mini narrative and more a series of tableaux. But still it’s impossible not to enjoy watching these delicate, motionless versions of us.

Mi Gran Obra runs as part of the London International Mime Festival at the Tate Modern until 17 Jan