Bureau of Lost Culture

• The Forger's Apprentice

  Elmyr De Hory was the greatest art forger of all time.  By the time he was exposed in 1967, it's estimated he had created over 1000 works that had been sold as by Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Derand, Duffy, and various other modern masters, and many of which remain undetected in institutions and private collections around the world.   But does it matter if we believe it's a Picasso and we enjoy it as such?   Mark Forgy came to Europe as a 20-year-old backpacker in 1969, bumped into Elmyr on a quayside in Ibiza, and lived with him for seven of the years between his exposure as the greatest art forger of all time in 1967 and his suicide in 1976.     It was a whirlwind life of culture, glamour, intrigue, Hollywood stars, dodgy writers, and psychopathic villains, all of which can be glimpsed in the extraordinary Orson Welles film ‘F For Fake’. Welles visited Elmyr in Ibiza and used his life for a meditation on the poetry of what 'fake' means, of what truth means, of what facts mean in comparison with a good story, a great image, an extraordinary performance.   Mark came to the Bureau to tell us all about it and to muse on whether the products of Elmyr's undeniable genius were really any less authentic than the art world itself.   In our time of fakery, epic frauds, fake news, fake gurus, fake identities, deep fakes, 'my truth not THE truth', feelings over facts, a time when the distinction between Reality and AI-generated content is getting very difficult to spot, this story seems very prescient..   Mark's book The Forger's Apprentice Orson Welles' 'F For Fake'   Photographs courtesy Mark Forgy/   #ElmyrDeHory #BureauOfLostCulture #Elmyr #forgery #artforgery #fake #artworld #OrsonWelles #FforFake #Ibiza #fernandlegros #markforgy    

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• Stonehenge and The Battle of the Beanfield

  The ancient temple of Stonehenge is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and one of the most visited sites in the UK.    Yet, despite hundreds of years of archaeological investigation and speculation, to some extent it remains a mystery. And it is a mystery that is deep at the heart of the British psyche, for Stonehenge has been a gathering place for thousands of years, and remains a nexus where prehistoric culture, mainstream culture and counterculture interact - and sometimes collide.    40 years ago, in June 1985, an incident occurred near Stonehenge that saw the largest mass arrest of civilians in Britain's history. Over 1000 police, many in riot gear, some with their IDs covered so they couldn't be held accountable for what happened, clashed with a raggle-taggle convoy of travellers, hippies and bohemian folk heading towards the Stones to hold the free Festival, which had happened at Stonehenge every year since the early 70s.   It was brutal   Women with babies were dragged from their mobile homes, others were pulled through smashed windscreens. Vehicles were trashed. People were truncheoned to the floor.   There were huge numbers of arrests, but in the end, virtually nobody was found guilty of a crime, although the police themselves were subsequently taken to court and lost.    Matt Pike came to the Bureau to tell us all about it. Matt has an official role at Stonehenge, as a guardian of the stones, as a guide to visitors and is the official writer in residence of the site. He also has an unofficial role as social historian and archivist of a huge amount of information, oral testimonies and lesser-known histories of Stonehenge and the things that has happened there, including 'The Battle of the Beanfield', the shameful incident 40 years ago, when the British state turned its security forces on its own people as a warning to the counterculture of the times.   Matt's Youtube Channel Matt's Instagram   Photos: Andy Worthington #Stonehenge #BureauOfLostCulture #BattleOfTheBeanfield #policestate #freefestival #wallyhope #thatcher #counterculture #Stonehengefreefestival    

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• The Sonic Explorer of the Psychedelic Frontier

  Doug McKechnie is an unsung pioneer of electronic music, a visionary who traversed the fringes of sound and consciousness at a time when technology, art, and radical thought were colliding to reshape culture.    Emerging from the explosive counterculture scene of San Francisco in the late 1960s, Doug was one of the first musicians to experiment extensively, and the very first to play live, with the Moog synthesiser, using it not merely as an instrument but as a portal into new dimensions of experience.    "I wasn’t interested in playing melodies. I wanted to find out what electricity sounded like when it told the truth.” He didn’t just make music—he made experiences. He played marathon sets in warehouses, at acid-fueled happenings, art galleries, planetariums, and with The Grateful Dead.  His performances were long-form, trance-like explorations of voltage, feedback, and consciousness—music as transformation.  “Those shows weren’t performances. They were portals” His music lay largely hidden for decades until re-released by VG+Records Doug's Music: The Complete San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 Vol. 2 With Thanks to Lee Gardner at VG+ #DougMcKechnie #BureauOfLostCulture #lighshows #sanfrancisco #thegratefuldead #frankoppenheimer #goldengatebridge #ElectronicMusicHistory #ModularSynths #MoogMusic #Psychedelic60s #VintageSynthesizers #UndergroundSounds #modularFrequencies #alanwatts

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• Ibiza and The Meteoric Rise of Club Culture - From Arty to Party

  Sunshine + Love, Beats + Drugs   How did a sleepy island off the coast of Spain, metamorphose from an artistic, countercultural haven into the global epicentre of electronic dance music, lighting the touch paper that caused the explosion of club culture?   Alexis Petridis, chief music writer for The Guardian, and Dean Chalkley, one of the UK’s leading photographers of British subculture (both seasoned ravers), witnessed this extraordinary rise from the underground at Mixmag, the clubbers’ bible, and have documented the subsequent transformations.   Alexis takes us on a trip through the island’s bohemian past and tells how its unique combination of natural beauty, 60s counterculture and 70s glamour set the scene for an extraordinary pop cultural explosion in the 80s and 90s that would resonate through the Western world.   The photographs in Dean’s new book ‘Back in Ibiza 1998 - 2003’ , taken in the heat of many magic moments, capture the golden age of happy, all-in-it-together, 24 hour party people, bacchanalian excess, and sunkissed beach life the island offered before the corporate monsters of superstar DJs, big brands and VIP lounges swallowed it whole.   For more on Dean Alexis on music Alexis on Club Culture   Images courtesy Dean Chalkley #BureauOfLostCulture, #IbizaClubCulture, #Rave, #BalearicBeats, #90sClubScene, #80sClubScene, #IbizaHistory, #AcidHouse #CultureUnderground, #Dancemusic,  #LostCultureFound,#mdma, #pasha, #nickyholloway, #superstardjs   

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• The Victorian Freak Show

  The Bearded Lady, Zip the Pinhead, Major Tom Thumb, The Elephant Man, The Hottentot Venus - we delve into one of the more controversial corners of popular entertainment: the world of Victorian freak shows — where the abnormal, the extraordinary, and the misunderstood were paraded as spectacle and sold as wonder.   But who were these so-called “freaks” - vulnerable human oddities driven to make a living the only way they could, cictims of exploitation, or pioneers of performance who found power in their difference? We’re joined by Dr. John Jacob Woolf, historian and author of 'The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age', a book that offers a deeply researched, empathetic, and eye-opening look at the lives behind the wonderful posters, at the performers who captivated crowds and challenged Victorian notions of normality. We explore Freakery and ask who are the modern freaks? Who do we gawp, marvel and laugh at?   More on John and hs work     #counterculture #bureauoflostculture #lostculture #freaks #freakshow #victorian freakshow #davidlynch #elephantman #ptbarnum #josephmerrick

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