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“Cinema was a way of escaping the tedium of the academy. I discovered the adventure and imagination…” - Panamarenko

From 1955 to 1960 Panamarenko studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp. But he spent most of this time in the science library and cinemas. For him, the cinema was a way of escaping the tedium of the academy. The films of the 1950s, mostly American, aroused his sense of adventure and stimulated his imagination. In the years that followed he amassed a substantial collection of videocassettes and laser discs. These films were a regular source of inspiration for his works or titles. The title Barada Jet, for example, derives from a scene in the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. The title Brazil is a reference to the 1985 film of that name, in which there is a character who dreams of flying using a foldable wing like this.

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