Smith’s insatiable instinct for contrived popular constructions has prompted him to experiment for the first time with the ballet formula and once again venture into the American landscape in search of ethnographic expedients. The first journey takes Mike to Florida and in Fountain of Youth archaeology park, immortalised in a number of photographs. Everything was then born out of this and the story is reproduced in fragments drawn on paper by Michael Smith and on the sewn rugs that serve as a backdrop to the whole exhibition.
For the second trip, again recorded in a photographic series, Mike goes to KidZania, another incredible theme park in Mexico. This is an educational format subsequently exported around the world in which children play at becoming adults and doing their jobs.
“Some people are born to win, some people are born to die” was the refrain of Go For Mike (Go for Mike, film, 1984). Mike is a loser who enthusiastically embraces life. Michael, the real one, is always a winner.