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Established 15,000 B.C. |
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| By the mid-eighteenth century travelling Magic Lantern shows had become a popular commonplace and, in 1794, Etienne Gaspard Robert opened his eerie but fantastically successful show 'Fantasmagoric'. In 1797 he moved the show to an abandoned and crumbling Capuchin monastery -- perhaps the first site-specific media installation/performance. Engraved illustrations of Robertson's 'Fantasmagorie' 1831-49 "Fantasmagorie' was so successful that Robert (billing himself Robertson), took his show, which included portraits of recently dead heroes of the French Revolution, ghosts and ghouls as well as a salutary reminder of mortality by finishing with an image of the Grim Reaper variously projected onto mirrors, glass, smoke and wax-soaked gauze, to Britain in 1809. So popular was the the show there that within a year 'The Lady's Magazine' was publishing complaints from parents whose children stole money and stayed out late to see the performance. |
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