The Many Faces of “Manifesto”

By Danielle Pope

The Many Faces of “Manifesto”
Cate Blanchett dramatically embodies various art movements in 13 characters

In this dramatic video installation, renowned German artist Julian Rosefeldt works with famed Australian actor Cate Blanchett to give new life to some of the most famous and provocative writings by artists of the modern era.

The work presents a series of striking monologues that Rosefeldt has created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned by the futurists, Dadaists and situationists, to the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch.

Blanchett performs these ‘new manifestos’ while inhabiting 13 different personas – among them a school teacher, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – to explore the power and urgency of these historical words in our world today.

Rosefeldt says that the work is an homage to the beauty of artist’s manifestos. “I have used the title Manifesto as a clear statement that the focus in this work is above all on texts, whether by visual artists, filmmakers, writers, performers or architects – and on the poetry of these texts,” he said.

The exhibition has received worldwide acclaim, and will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next week.

Manifesto is being shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 19 Feb 2017. For more information, see their website here

Image credit:

Julian Rosefeldt

Manifesto 2014–15

multi-channel film installation

installation dimensions variable

Mervyn Horton Bequest Fund 2013

Art Gallery of New South Wales

© Julian Rosefeldt/VG Bild-Kunst.

Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney

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