Ten years ago, in October 2014, “The Ghost Bus” Project kicked off: a visual (and visionary) adventure in the Land of Robin Hood. At the invitation of Marysia Zipser (founder of ACT, Art Culture Tourism) and thanks to the courtesy of Simon Barton – belonging to the family that organized the public transport service in the East Midlands in the last century – I had the opportunity to visit in Chilwell Beeston (Nottingham) the huge Bartons garage site housing superb exhibition and special events space as well as a wonderful collection of vintage vehicles.

I was captured by the story behind the “Ghost Bus”: the URR 865 AEC Reliance had been slumbering in an open Suffolk field for 20 years, resistant to both scrapping or restoration, before being discovered and brought back to its original fold a few years ago. A vehicle-sister of the “Ghost Bus” had been documented in an incredible 1959 movie in Kodachrome colour of a group of English ladies and gentlemen who toured from Nottingham to the Italian Riviera on a Bartons Road Cruise Holiday. I was immediately struck by the way time had shaped itself on the surfaces of the old bus. Scratches, tears, cracks, corrosion and various deteriorations covered the sheet metal of the old vehicle and so I took lots of photographs.

I set to work incorporating the “Ghost Bus” for my “Lacer/actions” project concerning realistic images of decomposed publicity posters, natural cracks and scratches, urban and industrial tokens and materials. Thus the idea of producing a series of videos in which to imagine a travel story that wanted to give new life to the old The Ghost Bus took shape. The project – preceded by trailers and flyers – consists of two short movies for public performances and video shows, a limited edition special poster (showing 9 images from the films), a special card series (reproducing 16 artworks selected from the hundreds of photos I took around the old bus).
The “Ghost Bus” project synopsis refers: “There’s an old bus at Bartons garage, in the ancient land of Robin Hood. After thousands of miles, between earth and sky, it’s taking a rest tired and rusty. But if we look closely, it continues to tell us the colours of its days along the dusty roads of the world…” The adventure of The Ghost Bus began like this, on a cloudy day in Chilwell Beeston, in the legendary Land of Robin Hood.

Can you believe that this art is from an old bus?

THE GHOST BUS

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Dieci anni fa, nell’ottobre 2014, prendeva il via “The Ghost Bus” Project. Su invito di Marysia Zipser (fondatrice di ACT, Art Culture Tourism) e grazie alla cortesia di Simon Barton – appartenente alla famiglia che nello scorso secolo organizzò il servizio pubblico di trasporto nel Middle East – ebbi modo di visitare il Garage degli storici bus. Fui subito colpito dal modo con cui il tempo si era modellato sulle superficie del vecchio bus. Graffi, lacerazioni, crepe corrosioni e deterioramenti vari rivestivano le lamiere del vecchio veicolo e così scattai tantissime fotografie. Così prese forma e corpo l’idea di produrre una serie di video in cui immaginare un racconto di viaggio che voleva restituire nuova vita al vecchio The Ghost Bus. L’avventura di The Ghost Bus è iniziata così, in una giornata nuvolosa a Chilwell Beeston, nella leggendaria Terra di Robin Hood. Ci credi che quest’arte arriva da un vecchio bus?