 |
THESSALONIKI – In the Greek city of Thessaloniki it rained fish following a heavy storm. A strong whirlwind sucked up seawater containing fish - the sardines finally came down to earth several kilometres inland. “We couldn’t believe our eyes, in the fields and in the woods where we would normally find mushrooms, everywhere there were little fish,” said to an inhabitant of Korona, a village 15 kilometres from the coast.
MIDDLESBROUGH – An English couple who were unable to take part in their daughter’s wedding on the faraway island of St. Helens, participated in their own way by acting out the marriage ceremony in their home using two dolls.
MOSCOW - Imitation Barbie dolls turn out to be perfect bait. According to Russian fishermen in the harbour town of Magadan, the local herrings are mad about the dolls’ blonde hair.
WASHINGTON – In Washington, President Clinton has unveiled a statue of President Roosevelt without his wheelchair. Previously Clinton had campaigned to no avail for a more historically correct sculpture.
AMSTERDAM – The arrival on the back of a Boeing 747, of the American space shuffle, flying above Dutch beaches, was a chat-up attempt by the United States general responsible for the space shuttle. He wanted to impress Heidi Graf, the spokeswoman for the space research centre Estec, in Noordwijk.
|
 |
NEW YORK – The writer Joan Didion said: ‘I always thought that García Márquez was a magical–realist, until I visited his country and realised that he’s simply a social realist, and that in Columbia you can see far stranger things than those he has described in his books.’
TEL AVIV – Two Israeli colonists offer tourists five days in the occupied territories with mock terrorist attacks. If regular tourists avoid Israel because it’s dangerous, why not attract tourists who are in search of adventure? After all people go diving with sharks.
LANJARON – The council of Lanjaron in Southern Spain has issued a statement prohibiting its inhabitants from dying. The ban was necessary because the graveyard is full.
GRONINGEN – During Halloween parents wearing Teletubbie costumes will patrol the streets of Veendam, Groningen, to prevent their trick-or-treating children being robbed of their sweets.
PHI PHI – A group of Thai villagers are lodging a complaint against 20th Century Fox for the destruction of a length of sea shore during the shooting of ‘The Beach’, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. They are angry because the film crew replaced the existing vegetation planting coconut palms instead.
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
NEW YORK – Several film makers have been asked by the United States army to use their imagination to help prevent a new terrorist attack on the country. The group of creative minds were invited to brainstorm, including Steven E. de Souza, script writer from ‘Die Hard I and II’, and Joseph Zito, director of films such as ‘The Abduction’ and ‘Delta Force One’.
|
|
BERGEN – The palace of justice in Bergen threatens to collapse due to the extreme weight of the dossiers which have been stored in the attic. Labour inspectors have issued the Justice Department with orders to remove up to eighty tonnes of archive material.
|
ARGENTINIA – Jeff Koons’ ex-wife, Cicciolina, ex-member of the Italian parliament and ex-porn-actress, hopes to solve the Gulf war by going to bed with Saddam Husein. She made this offer during an Argentinean television show ‘to achieve peace in the Middle East’.
SAN FRANCISCO – A pressure group in San Francisco has suggested that beggars be issued with mobile PIN-code readers because fewer and fewer people carry loose change.
THE HAGUE – During the traditional remembrance service on the Waalsdorpervlakte, for years now, the bugle player has been miming to a tape. Prior to the two minutes silence he pretends to play the ‘Last post’. In reality the sound comes from a high quality tape which guarantees optimal sound.
|
|
ALMERE – Dennis P., the employee who stole twenty million euros worth of diamonds from Gassan Diamonds in Amsterdam and then turned himself in last week, hid the loot in a public art work alongside the motorway near Almere.
BERLIN – A twenty-four year-old woman committed suicide last week by jumping from the fifth floor of Art Centre Tacheles in Berlin. A group of foreign schoolchildren mistook her act for a performance or installation and took a great many pictures of the body.
|
|
 |
|
For years Sjaak Langenberg has been collecting news items in which unintentional art projects are described. Often they deal with actions or events which appeal to people’s imagination, events that could have been thought up by an artist. Artists from other disciplines act as inspiration too.
Tommy Cooper is his hero - ‘Conjurors were always trying to outstrip one another with more and more spectacular tricks, Cooper broke with this tradition by simply allowing all his tricks to misfire. Everyone else came off second best.’ In his projects together with Rosé de Beer, Langenberg follows a similar tactic – looking to the left when everyone else is looking right.
KALOOKAN – Pedestrians in the Filipino town of Kalookan who do not cross the road at officially designated crossings, have either to pay a fine or else to sing the national anthem on the spot. On the first day this ruling was in place, 150 pedestrians were apprehended. Most of them bowed their heads in shame whilst they sang.
CHILE – A coffin in Chile which had remained at the side of the road following a car accident, was thought by both passers by and the police to be an art project. For this reason the coffin was left unattended to.
ENGLAND – Richard Siddall, goalkeeper for Stocksbridge Steels football team, was playing all on his own for ten minutes last Sunday. He hadn’t realised that the match against Witton Albion had already been cancelled owing to thick mist.
|
