Julian Rosefeldt
In The Land Of Drought
24 Jun - 13 Aug 2017
JULIAN ROSEFELDT
In The Land Of Drought
24 June – 13 August 2017
KÖNIG GALERIE takes great pleasure in presenting Julian Rosefeldt’s (b. 1965) first solo exhibition at the Gallery. On view in the nave of St. Agnes will be a new large video installation. Titled “In the Land of Drought,” it was filmed in Morocco and the Ruhr area.
A condensed version of Rosefeldt’s filmic interpretation of Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation”, “In the Land of Drought” (2015/2017) confronts the relationship between man and his impact on the world. Set to atmospheric sounds and a pulsating hum, the 43-minute piece looks back from an imagined future upon the post-Anthropocene: the aftermath of significant human influence on Earth. An army of scientists appear to investigate the archaeological remnants of civilization after humanity has made itself extinct. Shot entirely using a drone, Rosefeldt’s images hover meditatively over the desolate landscape and ruins. Connoting surveillance, the drone’s bird’s eye view removes human perspective with us onlookers kept at a distance throughout. Increasingly, more figures dressed in white lab suits emerge to inspect the ruins of civilization – which are in fact abandoned film sets close to the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
Halfway through, the audience is transported to the comparably bleak Ruhr area of Germany, which is littered with the remains of industrialization. The same ‘scientists’ prowl the abandoned mining region, wandering among the headframes and coal pits before finally descending upon an amphitheatre. As seen from the audience’s heavenly outlook, the amphitheatre resembles an eye, and its all-seeing ability is reflective of the panoptic aerial viewpoint. A dialogue unfolds between the two perspectives of control: the eye on the ground and the drone’s eye overhead. As the steady hum livens to a climatic rhythm, the figures draw close only to disperse again. Reminiscent of cell division, the unifying aesthetics hint at a prospective optimism amidst a dislocated world man has created.
Works by Julian Rosefeldt are represented in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Goetz Collection, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the École des Beaux Arts de Paris (2017), Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2017); Villa Stuck, Munich (2017); Park Avenue Armory, New York (2016); and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016). Concurrently with Rosefeldt’s exhibition at KÖNIG GALERIE, his films are featured in the exhibition „Luther and the Avant-garde“ in Wittenberg and, at Kunsthalle Helsinki
In the Land of Drought, 2015/2017
Film credits:
Executive Producer: Wassili Zygouris
Director of Photography: Christoph Krauss
Drone Camera: Billy Gropper, Nicolas Lutz
Drone Pilots: Severin Wegener, Holger Hirsch
Editor: Viktor Jakovleski
Additional Editor: Bobby Good
Postproduction Supervisors: Jan Schöningh, Manolo Bautista
Sound Design: Fabian Schmidt, Julian Rosefeldt
Team Morocco
Executive Producer: Karim Debbagh
Production Coordinator: Seloua El Gouni
Location Manager: Hicham Zaari
Assistants Location Manager: Khalid El Maya, Hicham Elliq
Extra Coordinator: Brahim Choukri
Assistant Extra Coordinator: Youssef Belghiti
Production Drivers: Mbarek Abid, Mohamed Abdelkrim
Animal Trainer: Nahid
Team Ruhr Area
Production Coordinators: Philip Decker, Stephanie Funk, Elisabeth Krefta,
Susanne Blank
Dramaturgy: Tobias Staab
Catering: Bobori
Shooting Locations Morocco
Atlas Film Studios Ouarzazate and surroundings, Atlas mountains, Dades valley,
Erg Chebbi, Jbel Saghro
Shooting Locations Ruhr Area
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG (Duisburg), Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (Duisburg), RWE Power AG (Garzweiler), Bergwerk Prosper-Haniel (RAG Deutsche Steinkohle, Bottrop), LWL-Industriemuseum Henrichshütte (Hattingen), NRW.URBAN PHOENIX West (Dortmund), Kokerei Zollverein (Essen)
Thanks to
the crew and extras
Kasbah Films: Karim Debbagh, Filmgalerie 451: Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti, airV8: Holger Hirsch, Goethe-Institut Rabat: Dr. Friedrich Dahlhaus, Benaissa Msiid, Tobias Staab, Lukas Crepaz, Johann Simons, Team Ruhrtriennale
Co-produced by Ruhrtriennale
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
With friendly support of the association of friends and supporters of Ruhrtriennale e.V.
Shot in Morocco and the Ruhr area, Germany, 2015
Written, directed and produced by Julian Rosefeldt
All rights reserved © Julian Rosefeldt
In The Land Of Drought
24 June – 13 August 2017
KÖNIG GALERIE takes great pleasure in presenting Julian Rosefeldt’s (b. 1965) first solo exhibition at the Gallery. On view in the nave of St. Agnes will be a new large video installation. Titled “In the Land of Drought,” it was filmed in Morocco and the Ruhr area.
A condensed version of Rosefeldt’s filmic interpretation of Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation”, “In the Land of Drought” (2015/2017) confronts the relationship between man and his impact on the world. Set to atmospheric sounds and a pulsating hum, the 43-minute piece looks back from an imagined future upon the post-Anthropocene: the aftermath of significant human influence on Earth. An army of scientists appear to investigate the archaeological remnants of civilization after humanity has made itself extinct. Shot entirely using a drone, Rosefeldt’s images hover meditatively over the desolate landscape and ruins. Connoting surveillance, the drone’s bird’s eye view removes human perspective with us onlookers kept at a distance throughout. Increasingly, more figures dressed in white lab suits emerge to inspect the ruins of civilization – which are in fact abandoned film sets close to the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
Halfway through, the audience is transported to the comparably bleak Ruhr area of Germany, which is littered with the remains of industrialization. The same ‘scientists’ prowl the abandoned mining region, wandering among the headframes and coal pits before finally descending upon an amphitheatre. As seen from the audience’s heavenly outlook, the amphitheatre resembles an eye, and its all-seeing ability is reflective of the panoptic aerial viewpoint. A dialogue unfolds between the two perspectives of control: the eye on the ground and the drone’s eye overhead. As the steady hum livens to a climatic rhythm, the figures draw close only to disperse again. Reminiscent of cell division, the unifying aesthetics hint at a prospective optimism amidst a dislocated world man has created.
Works by Julian Rosefeldt are represented in major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Goetz Collection, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the École des Beaux Arts de Paris (2017), Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2017); Villa Stuck, Munich (2017); Park Avenue Armory, New York (2016); and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016). Concurrently with Rosefeldt’s exhibition at KÖNIG GALERIE, his films are featured in the exhibition „Luther and the Avant-garde“ in Wittenberg and, at Kunsthalle Helsinki
In the Land of Drought, 2015/2017
Film credits:
Executive Producer: Wassili Zygouris
Director of Photography: Christoph Krauss
Drone Camera: Billy Gropper, Nicolas Lutz
Drone Pilots: Severin Wegener, Holger Hirsch
Editor: Viktor Jakovleski
Additional Editor: Bobby Good
Postproduction Supervisors: Jan Schöningh, Manolo Bautista
Sound Design: Fabian Schmidt, Julian Rosefeldt
Team Morocco
Executive Producer: Karim Debbagh
Production Coordinator: Seloua El Gouni
Location Manager: Hicham Zaari
Assistants Location Manager: Khalid El Maya, Hicham Elliq
Extra Coordinator: Brahim Choukri
Assistant Extra Coordinator: Youssef Belghiti
Production Drivers: Mbarek Abid, Mohamed Abdelkrim
Animal Trainer: Nahid
Team Ruhr Area
Production Coordinators: Philip Decker, Stephanie Funk, Elisabeth Krefta,
Susanne Blank
Dramaturgy: Tobias Staab
Catering: Bobori
Shooting Locations Morocco
Atlas Film Studios Ouarzazate and surroundings, Atlas mountains, Dades valley,
Erg Chebbi, Jbel Saghro
Shooting Locations Ruhr Area
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG (Duisburg), Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (Duisburg), RWE Power AG (Garzweiler), Bergwerk Prosper-Haniel (RAG Deutsche Steinkohle, Bottrop), LWL-Industriemuseum Henrichshütte (Hattingen), NRW.URBAN PHOENIX West (Dortmund), Kokerei Zollverein (Essen)
Thanks to
the crew and extras
Kasbah Films: Karim Debbagh, Filmgalerie 451: Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti, airV8: Holger Hirsch, Goethe-Institut Rabat: Dr. Friedrich Dahlhaus, Benaissa Msiid, Tobias Staab, Lukas Crepaz, Johann Simons, Team Ruhrtriennale
Co-produced by Ruhrtriennale
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
With friendly support of the association of friends and supporters of Ruhrtriennale e.V.
Shot in Morocco and the Ruhr area, Germany, 2015
Written, directed and produced by Julian Rosefeldt
All rights reserved © Julian Rosefeldt