ART: To the Barricades!

The world’s greatest art theorists are given a new life by Cate Blanchett who plays a teacher, homeless man, mourner and mother in Australian artist Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto (2015). The thirteen-channel video installation questions the role of the artist in today’s society as various manifestos are performed as a series of striking monologues.

The installation draws on manifestos by Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Situationists, and Dogma 95, and of individual artists, architects, dancers and film makers. Passing the philosophies of Oldenburg, Malevich, Breton and other influencers through his lens Rosefeldt has edited and reassembled a collage of artists’ manifestos.

Rosefeldt’s work reveals both the performative component and the political significance of these declarations. Often written in youthful rage, they not only express the wish to change the world through art but also reflect the voice of a generation. Manifesto questions whether the words and sentiments have withstood the passage of time.