Julian Rosefeldt
02 Apr - 16 May 2008
Arndt & Partner - Project Space - Invalidenstraße 50/51
Julian Rosefeldt
The Ship of Fools
2 April - 16 May 2008
Opening: Friday 2 May 2008, 6 to 9pm
The Ship of Fools (2007) – filmed on the grounds of the Baroque manor Schloss Sacrow, purchased by Frederick William IV in 1840 – that grapples with the metamorphosis and continuity of German national sentiment from the Romantic era through National Socialism, from the former East Germany to the neo-Nazis of today. On four projection blocks standing side by side, melancholy scenes reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich slowly unfold, almost motionless, to the accompaniment of baying sheepdogs. It is both a brooding, skeptical epitaph on more than two hundred years of German sensitivities and a murky allegory of the perpetual repetition of the ever same, fated to stay in the same rut forever, which has its formal correspondence in the protagonist staring into the far distance, rooted to the spot, and the tableau’s agitated immobility.
This is the pessimistic conclusion of the work: that there is no teleological development, no all-encompassing meaning, and no binding order in this world or beyond it and that we are obliged to remain in the infinite loop of our monadic existence and its own meaninglessness. With their pronounced systematic and documentary approach, the earlier works – created as a collaboration of equals with Piero Steinle – form, as it were, the necessary counterpoint. In Stadt im Verborgenen (1994), a search for the hidden impact of the Third Reich on the urban context of present-day Munich; in the surveying of industrial and post-industrial sites in Munich and Paris in Die unbekannten Kathedralen/Les Cathédrales Inconnues (1995/97); and in the ‘media archaeology’ of News (1998) and Global Soap (1999), Rosefeldt proves to be an explorer of fundamental, underlying structures, a detective on the trail of the invisible but powerful.
This introduction is an excerpt from the text "PLAY IT AGAIN" by Stephan Berg, from the catalogue "Julian Rosefeldt: Film Works" published by Hatje Cantz with further texts from Anselm Franke, Katerina Gregos and David Thorp. The catalogue presentation will take place in the Project Space on Sunday 4 May 2008 from 11am – 3pm. We look forward to welcoming you either on this occasion, or throughout the course of the weekend.
During the 4th Berlin Gallery Weekend we will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 7pm.
Address: Invalidenstraße 50/51
Usual opening hours:
Tue - Sat, noon-5pm
or by appointment
Julian Rosefeldt
The Ship of Fools
2 April - 16 May 2008
Opening: Friday 2 May 2008, 6 to 9pm
The Ship of Fools (2007) – filmed on the grounds of the Baroque manor Schloss Sacrow, purchased by Frederick William IV in 1840 – that grapples with the metamorphosis and continuity of German national sentiment from the Romantic era through National Socialism, from the former East Germany to the neo-Nazis of today. On four projection blocks standing side by side, melancholy scenes reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich slowly unfold, almost motionless, to the accompaniment of baying sheepdogs. It is both a brooding, skeptical epitaph on more than two hundred years of German sensitivities and a murky allegory of the perpetual repetition of the ever same, fated to stay in the same rut forever, which has its formal correspondence in the protagonist staring into the far distance, rooted to the spot, and the tableau’s agitated immobility.
This is the pessimistic conclusion of the work: that there is no teleological development, no all-encompassing meaning, and no binding order in this world or beyond it and that we are obliged to remain in the infinite loop of our monadic existence and its own meaninglessness. With their pronounced systematic and documentary approach, the earlier works – created as a collaboration of equals with Piero Steinle – form, as it were, the necessary counterpoint. In Stadt im Verborgenen (1994), a search for the hidden impact of the Third Reich on the urban context of present-day Munich; in the surveying of industrial and post-industrial sites in Munich and Paris in Die unbekannten Kathedralen/Les Cathédrales Inconnues (1995/97); and in the ‘media archaeology’ of News (1998) and Global Soap (1999), Rosefeldt proves to be an explorer of fundamental, underlying structures, a detective on the trail of the invisible but powerful.
This introduction is an excerpt from the text "PLAY IT AGAIN" by Stephan Berg, from the catalogue "Julian Rosefeldt: Film Works" published by Hatje Cantz with further texts from Anselm Franke, Katerina Gregos and David Thorp. The catalogue presentation will take place in the Project Space on Sunday 4 May 2008 from 11am – 3pm. We look forward to welcoming you either on this occasion, or throughout the course of the weekend.
During the 4th Berlin Gallery Weekend we will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 7pm.
Address: Invalidenstraße 50/51
Usual opening hours:
Tue - Sat, noon-5pm
or by appointment