Travels around the earth by water, land and air.

How far can one stretch the “alternative” in facts, before the average critical mind becomes aware that it has been taken hostage?

I decided to go on a trip, step into Munchhausen’s footsteps, and follow one strict rule of the cinema verité: I took my camera and really tried to be honest, hence and produce the truth and then expose it.

True Trips is a totally true travel diary, it documents stations of our journey. Like indian damask elephants racing through the deserted streets of a saltpeter intoxicated phantom city in Chile , vandalized artworks experiencing a phallic resurrection that even César de Vedôme could not have staged better , Lady Liberty leaving NYC to go where democracy is finally deliberate…

Land of the truth, Land of Lies or Lands of confusion?

Join in on my poetic-dystopic vogage, told in a collection of 31 postcards or animations.

I may or may not have modified facts in such a way that they resemble truth more than reality.

The visuals live in the real and the digital world, they exist as a postcards as well a video, both are vehicles for you to share your true, fake, exaggerated, humble messages. Post it !

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El Tatio, Chile, 2017

Too many colours! Impossible! Too much is never enough, perhaps only when it comes to shades of gray...

Tropic of Capricorn, 2018

So long, so thick, so big, so gaudy, what at first glance looks like a neon green auto-fellation is actually the perfect...

Darwin, Australia, 2012

What looks like blind, speed-running, smoking smurfs racing around a Francis Ford Coppola movie set are for real Casuarius Casuarius...

In the Air, Bali, Indonesia, 2013

On a flight from Banyuwangi to Yogyjakarta. We all know that termites can dismantle and dislodge entire houses, streets, even cities...

Sico Pass, Argentina, 2017

This pass is not called Sico for nothing. It's no secret that crocodiles are as cold as ice, but here they are made of it...

Mallorca, Spain

Where is the birdy? Have we not all stared at the camera, waiting for the little bird come out...

El Tunel, Chile, 2018

What a dumb cow, and the ocean was so close. If she had done without all the quesadillas and pisco sours, she probably...

San Pedro de Attacama, 2017

What a powerful swing. I saw these mega monarchs not far away from ALMA in Chile...

Zapahuira, Chile, 2018

Lady Liberty just had it, she is leaving. Too much of alternative facts, double voting, polarisation...

Garganta El Diabolo, Chile, 2018

Ivory Tower people, we all know them, disconnected from everything, living in their own land of confusion, praising themselves...

Chuquicamata, Chile, 2018

Vroum! Vroum! And here's a real world example of how far and how fast you can make it through Victorian damask...

Place de la Concorde, Paris, France, Christmas, 2018

Concorde. A plane, a place a pole. She has changed her name and sides so many times, a bit like in a swinger club...

Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2018

Bingo! Jesus is giving out all the cash that was held back by the Vatican Bank. Come to the Christo de Remeder and take your share...

Arcoris Valley, Chile, 2018

Woodstock is too long ago, it's time to plead to free the nipple again. I guess I am result of a promiscuitive act committed in the 1970...

Chuquicamata, Chile, 2018

To be first, to be last? Chasing the pole-position isn’t always the best place to be in...

Igazu, Brazil, 2018

An old and dying star. This red giant kissed the day good-bye. I was such a hot moment, first time in life I got sunburnt at night.

Place Vendome, Paris, France, 2019

There have been quite some attacks against Mc Carthy for planting his artwork on Vendôme. Anyway the tree is gone, and my digital cock took its place...

Valley of the Moon, Chile

What was first a squealing avalanche of thundering metal rushing the countryside and sounding like an emergency braking of...

Antigua, Guatemala

When first dived across this church I thought that I was swimming through a screensaver, only when the Orca appeared I knew that this was real...

Machu Picchu

Just landed in La Paz, those crazy colored houses in El Alto are breathtaking, but nothing alike this train that was ahead of us...

 

For all the Queens without a castle, here is yours. Just have a look outside it might land exactly where you are.

Kawah Iden, Indonesia

You see whaling is best done when there is a lot of fog, I finally got the real picture in this sulphur mine.

Lauca, Chile

Swimming with pink flamingoes, what a dream. Divine! But when I approached this lake a flock of bullducks appeared...

 

Holy Shit! When Hugues and me were visiting Humberstone not far from Iquique in Chile, I thought I would only visit a shut down saltpeter mine...

Chuquicamata, Chile

Keep it pumping baby!

 

The smaller species may be swimming betwixt the popping bubbles of you luxury bath...

Humberstone

Do you want to know today what tomorrow will bring? Usually, you need a witch to tell you your fortune...

 

Images of painted naked women are usually reserved for in house museums use...

Rotenfels, Germany

In the unlikely case that there isn’t an elephant in your room, look up there are even in the sky...

Socaire, Chile, 2017

Another sundowner is waiting for us. Whether el sol will come again tomorrow morning or not, Lamas don't want to think about that...

True Trips

Write me a postcard from Michael Baumgarten's magical mystery tours, let me share moments of animated fantasies from a contemporary digital lie baron who uses his imagination and fantasy to discover his own life of things full of colourful sensual flora and fauna in the colourful desert landscapes of Chile, in earth-fluffy cloudy skies, in Paris at night, on the dusty streets of Australia and in other worlds.

Postcards are sent souvenirs. They live on after the travels, glittering - as in this special collection - in the dust grains of imagined memory. Write me one.

The Collectors Book

This small collector book is a collection of 30 postcards. It will be mailed out in a hand- boxcardboard box. On its way to you, the box will Record all impacts, scratches, stamps of its journey. Each postcard has a QR code, which points directly to the animation of the card. The edition is limited to 300 copies.

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