Euphoria

Known by Armory audiences for his 2016 presentation of the “utterly absorbing” (ARTNews) film installation Manifesto starring Cate Blanchett, artist and filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt creates elaborately staged films that investigate the power of language and the conventions of cinema as an allegory for societal and individual behaviors. He continues this examination with the multi-channel film installation Euphoria, which explores capitalism, colonialism, and the influential effects of unlimited economic growth in society.

This immersive new work is scored with original music composed by Samy Moussa with an additional composition by Cassie Kinoshi. Presented in an arena-like setting, this Armory commission fully surrounds the viewer with life-size projections of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and acclaimed jazz drummers Terri Lyne Carrington, Peter Erskine, Yissy García, Eric Harland, and Antonio Sanchez, whose rhythmic and narrative nature mirrors the machinery of economy. Thoughts and musings from a variety of sources from economists, business magnates, writers, and celebrities from the likes of Warren Buffet, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman to Audre Lorde, John Steinbeck, Donna Haraway, and Snoop Dogg take on new meaning as they are reinterpreted as poetic monologues in real and imagined scenes of euphoric production and consumption, including a bank lobby that fills with surreal dance choreographies and acrobatics, five homeless men discussing economic theory, and an empty supermarket with a prowling singing tiger. The result is a searing monument to the history of greed that raises seminal questions around the success and enduring legacy of entrepreneurship.