Marfa Carpenter / MCSq2
Mecca, Compostela, the Western Wall, that’s traditional pilgrimage. Rite Here explores people who are creating their own rites. Vondie, my wife Vondie Berenson, shoots our footage, and I edit, and write the exegesis. We heard [about Dark Factory] from posts on Inner Free Me, and Falada, and No Ripcord, lots of artists, skaters, urbexers, not the usual spiritual groups. There is one overtly religious group onsite, but they’re, uh, not open to interviews . . . People leave offerings, they paint, there’s a lotus on the ground floor made from empty bottles and hundreds of pieces of quartz, Vondie got some incredible shots of that. The former graffiti wall is non-functional, the building itself is barely on trickle power, but there are new messages on that wall, we’ve documented them—I don’t know, maybe a grid systems hack? They write on the other walls too, they leave paper notes—About societal transformation, global portents, apocalyptic scenarios, epiphanies, mostly positive although some are sad, or confused, or hostile—Other sites too, that’s right, satellites of this system, Vondie and I could make a whole doc feature. Or a series.
Michelle Cosismo, cofounder Rite Here
