Point of departure for my talk is Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto, a film installation in twelve parts (including a 13th introductory part) that engages artists’ writings from a wide range of areas including literature, architecture, painting, and film. Specifically, the presentation will focus on Rosefeldt’s cinematographic use of portraits within the framework of his encounter with conceptual writings about art. “Facing the Text” inquires the double strategy of Manifesto’s use of portraits: the various ways the film installations are “giving a face to a text” and “confronting – rereading, rethinking – a text,” i.e., the artists’ manifestos, at the same time. Rosefeldt’s work is innovative in that it offers a new, multi-medial perception of the portrait and a new way to see – to read – well-established texts of the aesthetic tradition. It designs the portrait as a showcase for the encounter of image and text.

Respondent: Caroline Torra-Mattenklott (RWTH Aachen)