Pierre Bismuth
12/02/2015 > 26/03/2015
Opening on 12/02/2015, from 7 pm to 9 pm
For his new exhibition at Galerie BUGADA & CARGNEL, PIERRE BISMUTH presents a new video entitled Where is Rocky II? (2014) which is both a work in itself and the trailer of his full-length film to come. Where is Rocky II? announces PIERRE BISMUTH's return to Hollywood. Indeed, ten years ago, he was the first visual artist to be awarded with an Academy Award for the original screenplay of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, along with Michel GONDRY and Charlie KAUFMAN.
Film trailer is a form that PIERRE BISMUTH uses with humor, emphasizing the fact that a teaser promises a lot, and that the expectation is often more exciting than what it delivers. This way, he questions our perception of reality, particularly our relation to cultural productions.
Where is Rocky II? is about PIERRE BISMUTH's quest of a fantastical object that absolutely no one seems to have heard of: Rocky II. This is the name of a mysterious work made by contemporary artist Ed RUSCHA: a fake rock made of resin and fiberglass that the artist hid among real rocks in the Californian desert in 1976. The artist always refused to give further information about it and to reveal its location. If this work truly exists, where is it exactly and why is it hidden?
After discovering its existence in a BBC documentary in 1979, PIERRE BISMUTH started looking for this enigmatic piece. For the occasion, he retained a resourced and experienced private investigator, Michael SCOTT, and two renowned screenwriters from Hollywood, D.V. DE VINCENTIS (High Fidelity, The Night Stalker...) and Anthony PECKHAM (Invictus, Sherlock Holmes...). Where is Rocky II? draws its inspiration from America's cultural history and hollywoodian film mythology, by convoking some of the distinctive characters, themes, and places of the genre movie: the investigator, the actor, the screenwriter, the setting, the true and false, the game of appearances, the great outdoors from road movies, western films scenery - all of this with absurd humor and dry wit. Between fiction and documentary-based reality, the search for Rocky II is mostly meant to involve the viewer into a reflection about the power of imagination.
The shooting of the full-length movie Where is Rocky II? is currently in its final phase. PIERRE BISMUTH launched a crowdfunding campaign in order to give everyone the opportunity to participate in his investigation. You can contribute to the campaign on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/where-is-rocky-ii.
PIERRE BISMUTH was born in 1963 in Paris, he lives and works in Brussels. His work is currently shown at the Kunsthalle Vienna in PIERRE BISMUTH. Der Kurator, der Anwalt und der Psychoanalytiker. It was also recently exhibited at the Musée Régional d'Art Contemporain de Sérignan in a solo show entitled Ce qui n'a jamais été / Ce qui pourrait être. His works is also currently being shown in several group exhibitions: at Château de Rentilly, at Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten of Klagenfurt (Germany) and also at Kunsthalle Mulhouse.