JULIAN ROSEFELDT - WHEN WE ARE GONE

11.12.22 – 3.9.23 JULIAN ROSEFELDT WHEN WE ARE GONE
Visitor information

Dancing bankers, video still from the installation Euphoria by Julian Rosefeldt
Copyright: Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

The Völklinger Hütte World Cultural Heritage Site will host the institutional European première of Julian Rosefeldt’s celebrated new film installation, EUPHORIA, along with a major exhibition of the artist’s work. Rosefeldt is famed for the visual opulence and virtuoso choreography of his film installations.

JULIAN ROSEFELDT: WHEN WE ARE GONE presents seven of his (often large-scale) works from the last twenty years in specially chosen locations in and under the blower hall, which ranges across more than 6,000 square metres and features gigantic machines and flywheels. The interaction of art and industrial culture here reveals a breathtaking panorama of the Anthropocene Epoch. A look back at our past and present – WHEN WE ARE GONE.

EUPHORIA

An artistic tour de force journeying through the history of capitalism, EUPHORIA (2016–2022) asks why there still seems be no alternative to this economic system today. Drummers keep time and a youth choir sings, transforming the text collage of quotations ranging from Adorno, Virginie Despentes and Einstein to the Rolling Stones and Snoop Dogg into a veritable film opera.

A Park Avenue Armory Production

EUPHORIA

by Julian Rosefeldt

Commissioned and Produced by Park Avenue Armory
Co-Commissioned by Holland Festival, Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts, and Rising
In Association with Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte

Title:   Euphoria
Writer, Director, Producer: Julian Rosefeldt
Music composed by Samy Moussa
Additional music by Cassie Kinoshi
Performed by the Singers of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
and Terri Lyne Carrington, Peter Erskine, Yissy Garcia, Eric Harland, Antonio Sanchez

with Giancarlo Esposito, Virginia Newcomb, Ayesha Jordan, Kate Strong, Jeff Wood, Erik Hansen, Tim Williams, Jeff Burrell, Robert Bronzi, Rocio Rodriguez-Inniss, Dora Zygouri, Esther Odumade, Tia Murrell, Asa Ali, Luis Rosefeldt, Richard Siegal, Nena Sorzano, Corey Scott-Gilbert, Jared Brown and the Voice of Cate Blanchett

PENUMBRA

JULIAN ROSEFELDT PENUMBRA 12 bearb

Decelerated Dance from Penumbra, (2019-2022)
Copyright: © Courtesy of the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin and Seoul

PENUMBRA (2019–2022) – another institutional European premiere – looks into an uncertain future. Moving extremely slowly, we come across a new planet, fly over its desert landscapes and dive through the treetops of a wooded oasis into slow-motion images of an ecstatic rave. Is this humanity’s last hurrah? An apocalyptic vision?

 

IN THE LAND OF DROUGHT

Land of Drought FilmStill 01

Land of Drought | People on the way to a desert fortress
Copyright: © Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

IN THE LAND OF DROUGHT (2015–2017) anticipates the theme of PENUMBRA but is set closer to the present day. This captivating installation is a powerfully meditative elegy to our man-made age: drone footage shows hazmat-clad creatures amid the remnants of our civilisation, represented the North African film sets of the ancient world and the spoil heaps of the Ruhr.

THE SWAP

TheSwap FilmStill 09

The Swap | Two gangster groups threaten each other with firearms
Copyright: © Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

Shot in Westhafen, Berlin, THE SWAP (2015) appears at first to be an action-packed gangster film. However, the constant repetition of the film clichés of suitcase swapping, gun rituals and smoking car tyres points to the omnipresence of criminality and the factual absurdity of the impenetrable financial transactions of global commerce.

 

DEEP GOLD

Deep Gold 1

Dance scene from Deep Gold
Copyright: © Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

DEEP GOLD (2013/2014) continues the tradition of Luis Buñuel’s surrealist films. A male protagonist loses his way in a bizarrely allusive world of lust and desire, where feminism has already triumphed. The revival of 1920s’ Berlin is utopian yet also evokes a sense of danger, all to the soundtrack of tangos, Peaches and a Wagner aria.

UNKNOWN SOLDIER

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Video Still from "The Unknown Soldier
Copyright: © Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

The title of UNKNOWN SOLDIER (2007) refers directly to monuments all over the world in memory of anonymous soldiers, but it subverts this allusion to create a cinematic anti-monument. Lightning flashes reveal a man in uniform in falling into a void. In view of the current reality of war in Europe, Rosefeldt's UNKNOWN SOLDIER is tragically topical.

MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN

Meine Kunst 1 FilmStill 2002

Video Still from "Meine Kunst kriegt hier zu Fressen - Hommage à Max Beckmann"
Copyright: Videostill 2022 ©Julian Rosefeldt und Piero Steinle

In the film and sound collage MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN (2002), historical footage of the battles of World War I, the variété shows of the Roaring Twenties, the air battles of World War II, and the city of New York serve as motifs for the work of the artist. This “homage” also evokes the German “station drama” of the first half of the twentieth century.   

Artist Talk | Ralf Beil im Gespräch mit Julian Rosefeldt

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Julian Rosefeldt & Ralf Beil in "Artist Talk
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Katja Pilisi

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Portrait Julian Rosefeldt
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Katja Pilisi

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Julian Rosefeldt talks about his work "Euphoria"
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Katja Pilisi

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Artitst Talk: Generaldirektor Ralf Beil im Gespräch mit Julian Rosefeldt

Media Gallery

Press comments

„Selten kam Weltuntergangskino so großartig und intelligent daher. Neun Monate lang im Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte.“
Sabine Willkop, SWR Kunscht, 8.12.2022

„Großes Kino – im wahrsten Sinn des Wortes. Kunst mit viel Gehalt, trotzdem opulent und für jeden begreif- und erlebbar. Was will man mehr?“
Barbara Grech, SR 3, 8.12.2022

„Zum zweiten Mal widmet sich ein Großevent in der Völklinger Hütte der Filmkunst. Anspruchsvoll ist die Werkschau von Julian Rosefeldt – und mitreißend.“ 
Cathrin Elss-Seringhaus, Saarbrücker Zeitung, 9.12.2022

Impressions from the exhibition

  • 01WKE Rosefeldt Heller TWK 80490

    MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN

  • 02 WKE Rosefeldt 80441

    MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 03 HF WKE Rosefeldt 80407

    MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 04 WKE Rosefeldt 80502

    MEINE KUNST KRIEGT HIER ZU FRESSEN – HOMMAGE À MAX BECKMANN
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • The SWAP WKE Rosefeldt 11

    THE SWAP
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • E Maedchen WKE Rosefeldt 80508

    EUPHORIA
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • E WKE Rosefeldt 80486

    EUPHORIA
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • Taxi WKE Rosefeldt 80404 80904

    EUPHORIA
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • Drought WKE Rosefeldt 80452

    IN THE LAND OF DROUGHT
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • Penumbra WKE Rosefeldt 80473

    PENUMBRA
    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

Impressions from the opening

  • 01 a HF WKE Rosefeldt 6795

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 01b WKE Rosefeldt 6882

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • WKE Rosefeldt 6893

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 01 WKE Rosefeldt 80343

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 03 WKE Rosefeldt 6905

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 04 WKE Rosefeldt 80255

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 05 WKE Rosefeldt 6746

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 06 WKE Rosefeldt 10

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 07 WKE Rosefeldt 9

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 08 WKE Rosefeldt 7025

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 09 WKE Rosefeldt 6923

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 10 WKE Rosefeldt 6915

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 11 WKE Rosefeldt 7011

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 12 WKE Rosefeldt 6955

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

  • 13 E WKE Rosefeldt 7018

    © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

Julian Rosefeldt EUPHORIA TaxiDSC 1231

Scene from Euphoria, Taxi Driver (Giancarlo Esposito)
Copyright: © Studio Julian Rosefeldt, Berlin

Scene from Euphoria, Taxi Driver (Giancarlo Esposito)

Multimedia Guide

Provides information on all video installations

Headphones included in the price of admission

Own headphones with cable (3,5 mm jack plug) can be brought along

Führungen

Public guided tours through the exhibition
Saturday 3 pm / Sunday 11.30 am
(from 26.12.22) included in the entrance fee

Special tours for groups
(max. 30 persons, about 1.5 hrs.) 110 € plus reduced admission of 15 € per person
Registration at visit@voelklinger-huette.org

Guided tours can also be booked before 10 a.m. for schools and groups.

The World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks is largely barrier-free.

With generous sponsorship from

JR Sponsoren

JR Sponsoren

With generous support from

JR institutionelle Foerderer

JR institutionelle Foerderer