2001: A Space Odyssey

Julian Rosefeldt's work is characterized by elaborately staged film installations. He plays with viewing habits until the unfamiliar appears in the familiar motifs. As part of the exhibition Nothing is Original, delphi LUX and C/O Berlin are presenting a joint series of films that have had a major influence on Julian Rosefeldt's work. These include Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

When a monolith is discovered on the moon in 2001, this discovery is interpreted as proof of extraterrestrial life. A year and a half after the discovery of the monolith, two astronauts, Bowman and Poole, are sent to Jupiter in the Discovery spacecraft to gain further insights. The spaceship is equipped with the HAL-9000 supercomputer. The first complications with the computer soon arise…

In a scene of Manifesto (2015), the monolith from the beginning sequence of 2001 hovers horizontally in a soundproof room. Even in the sound design of The Shift (2008) there are minimal sound bit of sound from 2001. In addition, the long scene in the mysterious archive space in which the protagonist pulls long drawers with halved drill cores from a storage shelf is reminiscent of the supercomputer HAL 9000 in Kubrick’s masterpiece.

The Shift takes place in a dystopian world that is inhabited by a single figure in four different roles. The protagonist wanders through a convoluted network of tunnels, control rooms, and deserted facilities, in which his presence seems increasingly superfluous. In The Shift, Julian Rosefeldt paints a melancholy picture of progress and isolation in a period of growing technological automatization, while also posing the universal question of the meaning of human existence and activity.

More films from the series:

Thu, Aug 7, 2025 . 20:30
Night on Earth, 1991, Jim Jarmusch 

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 . 20:30
La Notte, 1961, Michelangelo Antonioni

Thu, Aug 21, 2025 . 20:30
L'Âge d'or, 1930, Luis Buñuel