Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto at ACMI - Review

Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto at ACMI - Review

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Posted 2015-12-08 by Jenfollow

Wed 09 Dec 2015 - Sun 13 Mar 2016



Art is not easily explained; each one taking from it their own individual concept and understanding of what is before them. An artist himself is in no control of the response he's going to get from his audience. This reasoning is touched upon by the artist in one of his twelve installations of commissioned cinematic art.

For this media event, I was extremely fortunate to have met the Berlin based German artist Julian Rosefeldt who made himself available sporadically. This gave me literally a couple of minutes for a quick chat and a quick photo before he was whisked away. Not long enough for the deluge of questions that sprouted in my mind after viewing his creation.


Knowing Julian came from an architecture background, I felt emotively that all his installations though separate, came together like a building block to form a complete piece. This was the question I posed to him; if consciously or subconsciously his architectural background came into play when he was creating art. Being a soft spoken lovely man I felt honoured to speak to, (I say again, not long enough!) he had a wry smile with soft eyes looking at me in agreement; both art and architecture so much a part of him, it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps both living side by side in his subconscious, each one rearing it's head as called for, as an artistic response.


The other question could easily be compared to 'how long is a piece of string'. I wondered how long it took from conception to completion, to which Julian answered 'a looong time' before he was whisked away. It really was a question that needed no answer for when you see all twelve projections, you can appreciate the amount of time it would have taken to come together. First there was the artistic seed of thought, then all that research into the writings of the various futurists, dadaists, fluxus artists and so on; putting it all together to represent your art. Then comes the filming (completed in 12 days during a Berlin winter for a130 minutes of footage), the various locations and so on and so on. All in all, an amazing feat well presented.


There are 13 categories of, and many manifestos quoted. They're listed on a board and acknowledged at the exhibition. The various texts from various manifestos were gathered by the artist, edited, combined, rearranged, interrupted with words of another artist to make new text that could be spoken and performed. Who better than Cate Blanchett who delivered it with an explosion of talent, adopting 12 different accents. I doubt anyone could have done it better.

She plays a school teacher, puppeteer, newsreader/anchor woman, reporter, taxi driver, homeless man, factory worker, lady in red (red wig worn at Stahnsdorf cemetery), manager, ballet dancer/choreographer, rock chick, mother of a family consisting of 3 boys and a husband (I'm almost positive the roles are played by her husband Andrew Upton and her real life children), and a scientist? in a chemical suit.


Each installation displayed on a hanging screen, takes about 10 minutes each (you'll need 130 minutes to see them all in their entirety). They all start and end at approximately the same time, but continue endlessly in a time loop. If text was Julian's focus, which it is, then he has achieved success. The words were powerful and the striking monologues voiced some of the most famous manifestos in art history executed perfectly.

It's certainly thought provoking, and for me, it was exciting to feel empowered and inspired by the poetry of each manifesto. Some of the questions explored by the artist are whether or not these passionate statements spoken with utter conviction, withstand the passage of time? If they're still relevant today and universally? Of course they are. After all, our voices are the most powerful vessels that can command attention and bring about change.


For all the questions I didn't get to ask; you can still read more about the Manifesto exhibition in an interview conducted by ACMI Senior Curator Sarah Tutton (whom I also met) and AGNSW Head Curator of International Art Justin Paton. They speak with Rosefeldt to discover more about the rich history of manifestos and the process of creating the brand new thirteen-channel installation. CLICK HERE to read the interview.

The exhibition also brings together the artist's previous works which include Deep Gold, Stunned Man (Trilogy of Failure II) and The Soundmaker (Trilogy of Failure I). I personally found Deep Gold mesmerising and visually stunning. I did cheat to save time and was able to concentrate on the the main exhibition Manifesto by watching it online days before on Julian's website .


I can't encourage you enough to experience something different and to not miss this magnificent presentation by ACMI. Manifesto has been commissioned by a unique group of partners aside from ACMI, and include the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin and Sprengel Museum, Hanover.

Best of all, it's all free!





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!date 09/12/2015 -- 13/03/2016
%wnmelbourne
158543 - 2023-06-14 15:13:05

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