Mirage, In Order Of Appearance – film premiere

March 14 (Saturday) 2015, 7 pm
Admission: free

Mirage, In Order Of Appearance is a film adaptation of the book Mirage by Sebastian Cichocki  and Łukasz Jastrubczak (2012). The material for the book originated in the winter 2011/2012. It was a a correspondence between authors, “duel” on text and image. Jastrubczak’s photographs created during the artist’s trip to the United States, and the response-text by Cichocki – “curatorial tips and notes” written in Poland, including inspirations from texts by Robert Barry, Robert Smithson, road maps and Google Street Views. In response to each sent picture, the text was created as a guide to the next picture. The authors had always twenty four hours a reciprocal response.

In the summer of 2014, after two years from the book release date, Cichocki and Jastrubczak decided to go on a journey in the footsteps of theirs heroes: the pioneer of “green conceptualism” John G. Lee, his partner Anna T.  Zaloon or blind hitchhiker named Mia. Using the “map 1: 1” – they traveled thousands of miles thru the United States, verifying their hunch, checking the evidence, hunting traces of myths and conceptual art of the twentieth century. The investigation led them to 35 years old mock town Wakarusa, humble gas station photographed over half a century ago by Ed Ruscha, hippie communes in Colorado, unfinished pyramid built in a quarry in Bedford or a museum in the desert Noah Purifoy –  who was African-American political advocate of the junk art. The various parts of the Mirage has been read before the camera (usually without understanding the meaning of the text), by accidentally met Americans.

The film was made as a result of a collaboration between authors from the Center for Land Use Interpretation. This research unit (whose registered office is located at Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles) leads Museum of American Land – which gathers a collection of several hundred objects with high (as said by theorist Stephen Wright) “coefficient of art”: abandoned gold mines, the city built a mock-up for film or work of self-proclaimed artists-cowboys.

Mirage, In Order Of Appearance CEC was established by a grant ArtsLink, in collaboration of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Polish Institute in New York, The Kosciuszko Foundation and  GuestHaus Residency, Los Angeles.

Project photoblog: mirazmirazmiraz.tumblr.com

Project  is co-financed by the European Union under the 2007–2013 Małopolska Regional Operational Programme.