The Art of Meta-morphosis Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams […] Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

—Jim Jarmusch

Practising what she preaches, a primary school teacher (Cate Blanchett, in one of thirteen roles) ‘steals’ Jarmusch’s words, using them to urge her students to borrow ideas from wherever takes their fancy. Patrolling the rows of desks in her classroom, she delivers an earnest monologue comprising various manifestos from the world of cinema. Closing off her reference to Jarmusch with the filmmaker’s own quotation of Jean-Luc Godard, still one of film’s most influential auteur-philosophers, she reminds the class, ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’ It is a meticulously calibrated scenario that mines humour and poignancy from the spaces between language, context and performance. The overarching sensibility of openness and curiosity on display informs each of the thirteen components of Manifesto (Julian Rosefeldt, 2015). Indeed, Jarmusch’s philosophy of ‘authentic theft’ is gloriously alive in every frame.

Originally conceived as a multichannel art installation, Manifesto was created as a nonlinear walk-through experience within a gallery environment. The work was jointly commissioned by the