Nov 16 to 30
Julika Rudelius (D/NL)
Economic Primacy
-
2005 | DV double projection | 17:56 min
Julika Rudelius explores aspects of human behavior—communication codes, facial expressions, gestures, gender-specific and culturally inflected behavioural patterns. In her videos, Rudelius creates artificial spaces, situations and moods, which serve as settings for interviews or re-enactments of everyday situations. The point of departure for Economic Primacy was a psychological checklist that had come to the attention of the artist: “How do I recognize a psychopath?” She was fascinated by the fact that some of clinical diagnoses bore a great similarity to characteristics of calculating, successful businesspeople. These include, for example, the lack of sympathy with others and of moral limits when it comes to achieving a goal, or the manipulative use of language. The five men she filmed in an impersonal office space—successful lawyers, spin doctors, advertising executives and millionaires—initially seem to be talking to themselves, but in reality are talking to the artist via mobile phone. The result gives the impression of a fragmented inner monologue conducted by each man on the importance and omnipotence of money.