Where Is Rocky II?

In 1979, American artist Ed Ruscha placed a rock-like sculpture among the real rocks in the Californian desert. This fake rock became completely absorbed by its environment, indistinguishable from the real ones. Ruscha has never included this mysterious artwork, which he named Rocky II, in his official catalogue, as if he didn’t want this piece of sculpture to be found.
But Pierre Bismuth (winner of a joint Oscar for the screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) can’t let it go, and calls in a private detective to find Rocky II. He also asks Hollywood screenwriters D.V. DeVincentis (High Fidelity) and Anthony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes) to brainstorm about the screenplay for an action film based about this hidden work of art. Bismuth’s docu-fiction raises questions about the nature of an artwork no one can see – an artwork, in fact, that virtually no one even knows about. Finally, it is the creation of myth and the general Hollywoodisation of life that Bismuth uncovers.

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