In this dramatic video installation, renowned German artist Julian Rosefeldt works with famed Australian actor Cate Blanchett to give new life to some of the most famous and provocative writings by artists of the modern era

Manifesto presents a series of striking monologues that Rosefeldt has created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned by the futurists, dadaists and situationists, to the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch. Blanchett performs these ‘new manifestos’ while inhabiting 13 different personas – among them a school teacher, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – to explore the power and urgency of these historical words in our world today.

Manifesto was originally co-commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW Sydney, the ACMI – Australian Centre for the Moving Image Melbourne and the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Sprengel Museum Hannover. The work is co-produced by the Burger Collection Hong Kong and the Ruhrtriennale. It was realised thanks to the generous support of the Medienboard Berlin-Brendenburg and in cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk.