Pierre Bismuth’s “Where Is Rocky Ii?” To Screen At World Renowned Museums Around The Globe

French Academy Award-winning artist Pierre Bismuth’s acclaimed “fake fiction” documentary “Where is Rocky II?” will screen over the next two months at Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou, London’s the Tate Modern and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

The first screening will be at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on the 23rd of November, with Bismuth and producer Grégoire Gensollen in attendance.The second will be at Tate Modern in London on the 9th of December. The final will be at LACMA in Los Angeles on the 13th of January, with Bismuth, Gensollen and screenwriters D.V. DeVincentis, Anthony Peckham and Mike White, actor Robert Knepper, and detective Michael Scott in attendance.

In 1979, American artist Ed Ruscha allegedly made a fake rock out of resin and hid it among natural rock formations somewhere in California's vast Mojave Desert. Named Rocky II after the Sylvester Stallone film, the work is never spoken about publicly nor is it listed in any catalogue of Ruscha's work. Obsessed with this mystery piece, Bismuth sets out to find it in Where is Rocky II?. Probing and inventive, this thoroughly original art quest blends documentary and fiction, and is as enigmatic as the mystery it seeks.

Bismuth’s directorial debut features High Fidelity and Emmy winning The People Vs O.J. Simpson screenwriter D.V. De Vincentis, Sherlock Holmes and Invictus writer Anthony Peckham, School of Rock writer Mike White, “Hunger Games” and “Prison Break” star Robert Knepper and “This is Us” and “Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life” star Milo Ventimiglia. Art world luminaries such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art director Philippe Vergne, philanthropist and collector Eli Broad, and Hammer Museum chief curator Connie Butler, are also featured.

The film is produced by The Ink Connection’s Grégoire Gensollen.  UTA and Cinetic Media are handling domestic rights, with Mongrel International handling international sales. The film made its World Premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto last May, then opened Art Basel’s Film Program, and continued to the Locarno Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival, opened Florence’s Lo schemmo dell’arte Film Festival and won the “Nouvelles Vagues” prize at La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival.

Bismuth is a French artist and filmmaker based in Brussels, whose practice can be placed in the tradition of conceptual art and appropriation art. His work uses a variety of media and materials, including painting, sculpture, collage, video, architecture, performance, music, and film. He is best known for being the author of the storyline of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2005, alongside Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman.

Full details for all three screenings are below:

PARIS - 23rd of November at 20:00

Cinéma 1, Centre Pompidou

Purchase Tickets: LINK

*Director Pierre Busmuth and producer Grégoire Gensollen will be in attendance

LONDON – 9th of December at 19:00

Tate Modern, London

Purchase Tickets: LINK

*Director Pierre Bismuth will be in attendance

LOS ANGELES – 13th of January at 19:30

Bing Theater at LACMA

Purchase Tickets: LINK

(Tickets will be available 2nd of December, 2016)

*Director Pierre Bismuth, producer Grégoire Gensollen, screenwriters D.V. DeVincentis, Anthony Peckham and Mike White, actor Robert Knepper, and detective Michael Scott will be in attendance

ABOUT CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU

At the end of the Sixties, the French President, Georges Pompidou, decided to create a wide-ranging arts facility in central Paris devoted to visual culture in all its forms. The Centre Pompidou opened in February 1977, and now houses the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Each year, visitors can enjoy around 30 temporary exhibitions in the galleries and within the museum. There is also a programme of music, dance, theatre and performances, together with film cycles, conferences, meetings and debates. Areas dedicated to young people aged 2 to 16 lay on awareness-raising events and hands-on projects exploring art. The Centre Pompidou also contains the BPI, a free information library, and IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music.

ABOUT TATE MODERN

Tate Modern opened to the public in May 2000. Located in the former Bankside Power Station, it is the world’s most popular museum of modern and contemporary art, attracting around 5 million visitors each year. It is one of four Tate galleries around the country, and part of a wider network of partner institutions – the Plus Tate network – which champions the visual arts in the UK. Tate manages a growing national collection of over 70,000 works of art, acquired and cared for on behalf of the public and shown in venues throughout the UK and across the world.

Tate Modern’s film programme is dedicated to showcasing works which actively expand definitions of artists’ cinema. Its cinema programme strives to present the most exceptional, challenging and pioneering work from different traditions of cinematic and artistic practice, including experimental film and video, artists’ film and features, documentary, animation, expanded cinema and live performance. Tate Modern’s film programme is supported by LUMA foundation.

ABOUT LACMA

Since its inception in 1965, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has been devoted to collecting works of art that span both history and geography, in addition to representing Los Angeles's uniquely diverse population. Today LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection that includes over 130,000 objects dating from antiquity to the present, encompassing the geographic world and nearly the entire history of art. Among the museum’s strengths are its holdings of Asian art; Latin American art, ranging from masterpieces from the Ancient Americas to works by leading modern and contemporary artists; and Islamic art, of which LACMA hosts one of the most significant collections in the world. A museum of international stature as well as a vital part of Southern California, LACMA shares its vast collections through exhibitions, public programs, and research facilities that attract over one million visitors annually, in addition to serving millions through digital initiatives such as online collections, scholarly catalogues, and interactive engagement. LACMA is located in Hancock Park, 30 acres situated at the center of Los Angeles, which also contains the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum and the forthcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Situated halfway between the ocean and downtown, LACMA is at the heart of Los Angeles.

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