This Rosefeldt’s work is an homage to the artist’s manifesto – from Dada to Fluxus, Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Dogma 95 – and raises questions about the role of art in Modernism. Cutting and combining these historic texts, the artist created poetic collages that are spoken and embodied by actress Cate Blanchett playing thirteen different roles. Whether as a choreographer of a dance troupe, primary school teacher, eulogist, factory worker, stock broker or as a homeless man, each of her characters brings the historic manifestos into the everyday world of the present. The phrases and demands hold their own in their new settings and prove to be surprisingly up-to-date and pertinent.
The Berlin-based artist Julian Rosefeldt is internationally renowned for his visually opulent and meticulously choreographed moving image artworks, mostly presented as complex multi-screen installations. Inspired equally by the histories of film, art and popular culture, Rosefeldt uses familiar cinematic tropes to carry viewers into surreal, theatrical realms, where the inhabitants are absorbed by the rituals of everyday life, employing humour and satire to seduce audiences into familiar worlds made strange.
