Fire-Followers (2013)

In this hysterical deadpan pseudo-doc, acclaimed Polish artist Karolina Bregula constructs a scenario in a fictional Northern European city plagued by mysterious fires throughout its history. As the town’s peculiar inhabitants speculate about the cause of the fires, the way they may be prevented and the strange coincidence of where they occur, a possible conspiracy to destroy local art begins to emerge. Are the fires caused by a secret cabal of art historians who wish to aid local artists by eviscerating the burden of art history? Have the needs of the art market placed infinite demands upon the finite resources of artists? “Fires,” a botanist tells us, “are vital to maintaining fully dynamic ecosystems. Without fires there simply is no new life.”