Installation views

Julian Rosefeldt – Making Of. Film Installations and Photo Works 2004–2010, DA2 – Domus Artium, Salamanca, October 2010–March 2011

Changing the World, ARNDT, Berlin, April–May 2010

>> Close

The Opening
2007/2009
7-channel film installation
Colour, stereo sound
Shot on Super 16mm film
Converted to HD-SR and transferred onto 7 synchronized Hard disc players
Loop, 7 min 20 sec
Edition 6 + 2 ap

The Opening (2007/2009) was originally created for Tom Tykwer’s action thriller The International (2009), whereby a perfect replica of the Guggenheim Museum in New York was built at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. Julian Rosefeldt was asked to set up an exhibition of his works in the fake museum and to produce a new work for the iconic rotunda, both serving as backdrop to the central action scene in Tykwer’s movie.

The seven-channel film installation pays homage to the Guggenheim’s spiral structure. An exhibition opening is taking place in a circular gallery space where the only exhibited artwork is a phallic persiflage on contemporary sculpture. Stereotypical players of the art-world cultivate their conversational rituals and barely pay attention to the work. Driven by an invisible force, the visitors increasingly stumble towards the wall, where they carry on chatting without interruption even when they literally lose ground. The situation turns into a swirling funhouse ride.

The Opening can be read as a metaphor for today’s hysteric art market that is running more and more out of control. It further implies a recurring motif in Rosefeldt’s works – the uncontrollable and unstoppable forces which manipulate and deform man.

Summarised from Rachel Wolff, Shooting Gallery, in: Art News (January 2009)

Exhibitions / Catalogues

– Alive She Cried – A film & video exhibition curated by Reynold Reynolds, Galerie Zink, Berlin, May–July 2011
– Julian Rosefeldt – Making Of. Film Installations and Photo Works 2004–2010, DA2 – Domus Artium, Salamanca,
October 2010–March 2011 (curated by Javier Panera)
– Changing the World, Arndt, Berlin, April–May 2010
– FischGrätenMelkStand, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin, July–August 2010 (curated by John Bock; catalogue)

Film Credits

Shot in Brussels, Belgium 2007

Written, directed and produced by Julian Rosefeldt

All rights reserved © Julian Rosefeldt