American Night

Julian Rosefeldt is today one of the most powerful artists working at the intersection of narrative film and complex filmic installation. Since the late 1990s, his suggestive imagery—clearly hinting at the baroque tradition of 'theatrum mundi'—is dealing with the cinematographic play of appearance and reality and a life in continuous repetition. On another level, almost all of his art works refer to the idea of the tableau vivant and its animated stillness.

In his opulent 5-channel-film-installation American Night (2009), which forms the basis for this publication, Rosefeldt reflects the genre of the Western and its central motifs, while at the same time exposing the cinematographic logic of the scenes, by allowing a view on the set and an insight into the production process. Furthermore, Rosefeldt combines America's foundation myth with its current hegemonic foreign policies.

Julian Rosefeldt: American Night is published by Kunstmuseum Bonn, in cooperation with EX3 Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea in Florence; it is edited by Stephan Berg, Lorenzo Giusti and Arabella Natalini.