Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto

19.8. - 15.10.2017

What is the role of the artist today? Julian Rosefeldt’s sensational 13-channel film installation Manifesto (2015) is an homage to the tradition of artist manifestos.

Rosefeldt constructed a collage of historical texts and combined the contents with contemporary contexts. The result was a ‘manifesto of manifestos’: 13 poetic monologues, which relay the voice of the artists, ranging from Dadaists to Situationists, from Kasimir Malevich to Jim Jarmusch. The texts, written with the passion of the youth, tell of a desire to change the world through art.

The Australian movie star Cate Blanchett performs an incredible acting feat by playing 13 different personas – including a teacher, a news anchor and a homeless man – and by breathing new life into both world-famous and less-familiar texts.

Have the manifestos’ powerful, pompous words and ecstatic emotions stood the test of time? How have the dynamics of politics, art and life changed? Have the manifestos led to actions? Manifesto has previously been shown in, for example, Berlin and New York.

Manifesto is part of the Helsinki Festival program.

Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto, 2015 © Julian Rosefeldt and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn