Jacques Loeuille
Roadside attractions - Installation - 2010
presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 12
Installation
On the surface of a slightly sloping Plexiglas platform is a projection of still images; the action in the film is suspended until the spectator liberates it. When the image is touched, the film starts… The installation is based on a touch sensitive projection. Roadside Attractions is an interactive documentary presented in the form of a road-movie-juke-box. The touch sensitive aspect of the installation permits a non-linear navigation of the interstate-25, an American motorway which runs along the Continental Divide over 1 500 kilometres, from the Canadian border to the Mexican frontier. This motorway, renamed the "atomic path" serves what is left of the military infrastructure linked to nuclear armament, from the fabrication of bombs to the missile stores and the testing zones. The disarmament has consequently emptied these garrison towns of a part of their population. In order to remain dynamic, some of these towns are trying to develop tourism based on the local heritage: nuclear energy. Museums, vineyards, restaurants and associations are appearing, all decorated with the adjective ATOMIC. These towns found all along the interstate-25 are in the process of being reconverted and looking for their identity. I would like to film these vestiges and in particular look at the way in which this activity has been assimilated by popular culture, how this episode of History has given way to Mythology.
