A string of absurdities
Installation, 2023.
Framed photographs (four measuring 100 × 70 cm and two measuring 50 × 33 cm); two A4 bound dossiers; diorama (curtains, light bulb, foam board, camera, smoke machine, weights, and tripod-shaped supports) approx. 400 × 250 × 200 cm; and assorted documentation.
The project investigates the photograph of a purported UFO taken in Sóller (Mallorca, Spain) in 1979 and the possibility that it shows an optical reflection generated by the camera’s own lens.
The work consists of a series of photographs taken in 2020, 2021, and 2022 with the same camera and from the same location as the 1979 photograph; a diorama that artificially reproduces the conditions necessary for the shot, used to carry out an optical experiment to test whether a reflection appears; two scientific reports (one phototechnical and one astronomical) prepared by project collaborators during the research process; and various historical documents regarding the public circulation of the original image.
The project operates through experimental scientific research methodologies developed in collaboration with physical science professionals, intertwined with contemporary artistic creation methodologies, and seeks to function as a space connecting the scientific and the artistic, evidence and belief, narrative and image, subjective vision and the construction of myth.
Photographs by Pep Climent (1), Judit Bou (2, 3) and Pol Massip (4)
