Un rosari de despropòsits

Ongoing research based on speculation generated by the photograph of a UFO shot in Sóller, Mallorca, in November 1979. A few years later it was determined to be a simple lens flare, a reflection generated by the lens of the camera itself.

The work looks at the series of explanations presented at each moment as the truth of the case, but which with distance we can understand as specific readings made from a specific field of vision traversed by a specific context and tradition. From the support for the spacecraft theory during the UFO and extraterrestrial fever of the national media during the Spanish transition, to the increasingly rationalised and scientised sceptical explanation of the UFO phenomenon, which in this particular case is exemplified by the flare theory.

The project proposes a comparative analysis between the iconic image and new captures taken with the same camera, optics and framing on the day of its anniversary in 2020 and 2021, which seem to cast doubt on the hitherto accepted theory of flare.

Albert Gironès (Valles, 1995)

Visual artist, cultural manager and researcher. He works from and for the context through artistic research and intervention in reality. His practice maintains interests in popular stories, rumorulogy and the marvellous imaginaries associated with certain places. He has developed projects in collaboration with creative spaces, neighbourhood associations, museums, educational centres and publishing houses in Catalonia, Spain, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and Chile, among others.

With de collaboration of: Clara Gassull i Ran-el Cabrera

Production: Edu Vidiella, Fusteria Albert Gironès, Grup BOU, Logoscan Treballs gràfics and Vidres Valls

Assembly support: Oriol Moreno

Acknowledgements: Aina Crespí, Alberto Darder, Aniol Gironès, Anna Vilamú, Antonio Bernal, Eugènia López, Diario de Mallorca, Jordi Andilla, Maria Calafat, Mònica Rovira, Pol Olivé and Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos

Supported by ICUB and Ajuntament de Barcelona

Experiment carried out on Tuesday 29th March at the Santa Mònica lecture room

"A string of nonsense", by Albert Gironès

The experiment proposes an attempt to recreate in a studio the supposed basic conditions detected by the prey of the 1979 UFO photograph from Sóller, Mallorca, in order to experiment with the practical possibilities of the image actually showing a lens flare. Through this recreation, we propose the creation of a series of photographs that, through the same framing as in the original image, attempt to imitate it. The experiment is designed through the intuitions and knowledge of photographer Ran-el Cabrera, with the technical assistance of photographer Clara Gassull.

By means of a 3 x 1.5 metre sheet of black foam cut to size, the silhouette of the Marroig mountains, the Portillo de Su Costa, the Puig del Ofre and the Cornador Grande and Pequeño - the silhouette seen from the Market Square in Sóller and framed in the lower part of the 1979 photograph - is recreated. A 2,700 K bulb mounted together with a camera diaphragm is used to recreate the light source in the photograph behind the mountain silhouette, and a white cloth and the smoke from an electronic cigarette are used to recreate the low fog visible in the image. The series of photographs in question were shot with a SONY A7R digital camera, and a MINOLTA Rokkor 50mm 1.4 lens, the same one used by the author in the original photograph.

Now that the experiment is over, the photographer Ran-el Cabrera is working on drawing conclusions about it. These conclusions will be set out in a technical report that will guide the next steps in the research project "Un rosario de despropósitos".

https://youtu.be/4CupDOyD6yE