French artist Pierre Huyghe, commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation in 2003, executed an extensive project titled “Streamside Day Follies.” With access to the small abandoned town of Streamside, Huyghe literally invented traditions for this provincial town in the USA. The project involved interconnected relationships between three elements: an imaginary community in the Hudson Valley, which launches an equally fictional festival; an actual film that narrates the workings of the young festival. “The exhibition led to the regular creation of a fourth space where the imaginary community, the film, and the festival would converge. Huyghe achieved this by designing four walls suspended on motorized tracks, programmed to periodically assemble into a darkened enclosure, within which the film ‘Streamside Day Follies’ would be shown” (35. Parallel Presents The Art of Pierre Huyghe by Amelia Barikin, MIT Press, 2012). When the film concludes, the walls disassemble. To this day, the celebration of the “Streamside Day Follies” and the film festival continue to take place in this town. In this way, the artist initiated an entire tradition within this specific location, which continues to be reproduced on a regular basis.
