Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Art Vigilantes


This is a strange group of people; they call themselves “les Ux.” The full story can be found here:

Here are some excerpts:

“Mr Kunstmann belongs to les UX, a clandestine network that is on a mission to discover and exploit the city’s neglected underworld. The urban explorers put on film shows in underground galleries, restore medieval crypts and break into monuments after dark to organise plays and readings. In the eyes of their supporters, they are the white knights of modern culture, renovating forgotten buildings and staging artistic events beyond the reach of a stifling civil service.”

“Mr Kunstmann said that les UX had 150 or so members divided into about ten branches. One group, which is all-female, specialises in “infiltration” – getting into museums after hours, finding a way through underground electric or gas networks and shutting down alarms. Another runs an internal message system and a coded, digital radio network accessible only to members. A third group provides a database, a fourth organises subterranean shows and a fifth takes photographs of them. Mr Kunstmann refused to talk about the other groups.”

“Last year the Untergunther [one sect of the group] spent months hidden in the Panthéon, the Parisian mausoleum that holds France’s greatest citizens, where they repaired a clock that had been left to rust...When the clock began working again, officials were horrified. The Centre for National Monuments confirmed that the clock had been repaired but said that the authority had begun legal action against the Untergunther.”

Perhaps these people are the new superheroes, a justice league that protects antiquates from abuse and evil.

This also has thematic appeal. Can you imagine it? The movie starts with a young Bruce Wayne, who tragically witnesses the destruction of his grandmother’s antique armoire at the hands of an incompetent mover; this motivates young Bruce to travel around the world, gaining skills so he may pursue a life of vigilante justice.

Yeah, I’d watch that.

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