Platform China is pleased to present The Perfectionist and Lonely Planet, Julian Rosefeldt's first solo exhibition in China.

Julian Rosefeldt was born in Munich, Germany in 1965 and studied architecture in both his hometown and in Barcelona before focusing on film and video. He now lives and works in Berlin and exhibits throughout the world. Rosefeldt has work in major international art institutions and collections, such as the Saatchi Collection in London and the Goetz Collection in Munich, he is represented by galleries in Berlin/Zurich (Arndt & Partner) and London (Max Wigram Gallery).

Julian Rosefeldt's films possess a complex visual quality. The viewer is immersed in lavishly staged sets, which are projected in cinematically frequently onto a series of screens. Caught in a continuous loop, his protagonists move rhythmically matched by the action of the camera gliding slowly forwards and backwards. Rosefeldt treats everyday rituals and clich¨Śs analytically and ironically, subverting them by shifting the action into the absurd.

The Perfectionist is the third part of Rosefeldt's Trilogie des Scheiterns (Trilogy of Failure) - a series of installations that deals with people's futile striving towards control. It is a three channel video installation that shows on the left hand screen a man caught up in a perpetual inspection of a parachute. Instead of stepping out and flying, this cross-checking becomes an obsessive act: the parachutist has become Sisyphus. Parallel to this on the right hand screen, the same actor can be seen, as he simulates the parachute drop at home on his ironing board. The ridiculousness of the heavy man on the fragile domestic appliance is underlined by a fog machine being switched on, which all of a sudden can't be turned off. Thereupon an aircraft turbine rushes into the room - while on the left hand canvas a storm starts to blow, which welds the man to his inflated parachute. The central picture of the installation meanwhile remains quiet: in a cockpit a pilot flicks a multitude of switches with a practiced hand, without however any discernible result. Rosefeldt underscores the absurdity of automatic processes and compulsive behavior: The dream of flight flounders on the emptiness of ritual. Sisyphus becomes Icarus.

The Lonely Planet challenges the viewer to think about how society forms visual stereotypes. A single screen shows a figure backpacking across India, played by Rosefeldt himself. "His journey takes him from romanticized motifs to the slums of Bombay. Here the scene suddenly shifts from a fictitious narrative to the reality of filmic scene setting: the tourist emerges as a performer amongst cameras and spotlights - the dirty metropolis gives way to the artificial and illusory atmosphere on the set. A putatively authentic India reverts to the realm of Bollywood, culminating in a musical interface from the film. Finally on this meta-level the current Indian clich¨Śs of chaos, kitsch and call-centres dissolve into a surreal choreography."

This, the first exhibition of Julian Rosefeldt's work in Beijing, provides Chinese viewers with a new perspective on contemporary art from Germany. Recently, with many Chinese artists introduced to the West, contemporary Chinese art has become much more familiar to the international art world. And, although the work of some Western artists has been introduced to a Chinese audience, by exhibiting established international artists Platform China hopes to take the initial steps towards a more complete cultural dialogue between the East and West.