Stunned Man (Series 1)

Trilogy of Failure (Part 2)
Stunned Man (Nr. 1–5, Series 1)
2004
Lambda print, 90 x 115 cm
Edition 4 + 2 ap


The photo works were created in the context of the film installation Stunned Man (2004). It's the second part of Rosefeldt’s Trilogy of Failure (2004/2005) in which three different settings draw a picture of our vain entanglement with everyday rituals. In each case the protagonist is caught up in a microcosm that suggests mental and spatial claustrophobia. As a reaction to the hopeless situation, he plunges into permanent Sisyphean activity – going nowhere and producing nothing. The motifs of perpetual attempt and constant failure find their equivalent in the repetitive structure of the loop. The scenes are allegories of our frantic and ultimately futile attempts to escape the surrounding norms, constraints, structures and rituals by which we are determined.

Stunned Man (2004) shows a young man vandalising his apartment, which is then assiduously reassembled by his alter ego, only to be destroyed once again. As in the first part of the trilogy, the room is recognisable as a film set and neglects the cinematic effect of illusion. The wordplay of the title refers, like The Soundmaker (2004), to a film profession pursued more or less behind the scenes: the stuntman.

Summarised from Stefan Berg and Katerina Gregos, in: Julian Rosefeldt: Film Works (2008)


Exhibitions / Catalogues

Stunned Man (Nr. 1, Series 1):
– Julian Rosefeldt. Lonely Planet, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, September–October 2012
– Julian Rosefeldt – World-Making. Film and Photo Works 2001–2011, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, April–June 2012
   (curated by Mei-ching Fang, Fang-wei Chang; catalogue)
– Julian Rosefeldt – Making Of. Film Installations and Photo Works 2004–2010, DA2 – Domus Artium, Salamanca,
   October 2010–March 2011 (curated by Javier Panera)
– Julian Rosefeldt. The Ship of Fools, Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, January 2008
– Julian Rosefeldt: The Soundmaker, Arndt & Partner, Zurich, February–March 2005
Stunned Man (Nr. 2, Series 1):
– Julian Rosefeldt – Making Of. Film Installations and Photo Works 2004–2010, DA2 – Domus Artium, Salamanca,
   October 2010–March 2011 (curated by Javier Panera)
– Julian Rosefeldt: The Soundmaker, Arndt & Partner, Zurich, February–March 2005
Stunned Man (Nr. 4, Series 1):
– Julian Rosefeldt. The Ship of Fools, Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, January 2008
Stunned Man (Nr. 5, Series 1):
– Julian Rosefeldt. Lonely Planet, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, September–October 2012
– Julian Rosefeldt – World-Making. Film and Photo Works 2001–2011, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, April–June 2012
   (curated by Mei-ching Fang, Fang-wei Chang; catalogue)
– Julian Rosefeldt – Making Of. Film Installations and Photo Works 2004–2010, DA2 – Domus Artium, Salamanca,
   October 2010–March 2011 (curated by Javier Panera)

Literature

Berg, Stephan, et al., eds. Julian Rosefeldt: Film Works. Ostfildern, 2008.