Yesterday I was visiting this amazing sculpture made by Nathan Coley.
The sculpture text (There will be no miracles here) has been taken from a 17th Century royal proclamation made in a French town believed to have been the frequent site of miracles.
In the 17th Century town didn't want to have miracles in. Could we say the same about the 20th Century?
The metalic structure in an empty green space reminded me my favourite Fellini's "Dolce Vita" scene: The miracle. (the scene is recreated in the upper part of this photograph). Temporal structures in an empty grassfield to provide lighting to the "miracle" that is going to happen during the night. A miracle that has been advertised and is repeating each week.
Berlanga talks clearly about the issue in his recommendable film "Los jueves milagro". The main turistic attraction in an small village in Spain -a bathhouse- has lost popularity and the incomes to the village have deeply decreased. The solution, where all the village is involved, is create a new turistic attraction: a miracle.
Pepe Isbert as a holy ghost in "Los Jueves Milagro".
So I have started talking about Scotland, and I must end talking about the most famous animal in Scotland: Ness lach monster (Nessie).
The 2nd May 1933, Alex Cambell, a part-time journalist in the Inverness Courier (Marcello Mastroianni performs in la Dolce Vita a similar role: a journalist covering social events in the 60's Rome), reported the first time any information of the Monster.
4 months later, the first photographs were published in The Daily Express.
As Berlanga foretelled in his film, the miracle can became a bussiness, and the monster is nowadays one of the favourite souvenirs in Scotland. Dress on typical dresses, stamp in t/shirts, as a muppet with his Scottish hat...
Unfortunatelly, although many people is visiting the loch every year, for the moment, "there has not been miracles there".
