Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac announces the Austrian premier of Dillinger Running series by Sturtevant opening Saturday October 2 in HALLE. Following on the recent exhibition in Paris at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Dillinger Running series is a sequence of still photographs in which the artist is seen walking dressed in a long fur lined cousers and felt hat with purposeful long strides.
Referencing both Joseph Beuys and the famous American gangster John Dillinger, she changes both the context and the meaning of the respective personalities and the character. This is not a video in the true sense of the word as she photographed the single images of herself and then filmed these still photographs in a series á la Muybridge at the turn of the century. This film is then projected on a revolving turn table in the centre of the room so the viewer is surrounded by the illusion of the walking figure.
Like many of her performance works where she reinterprets the persona of another legendary figure the new version is nothing like the original and in this reinterpretation lies the mystery and power of Sturtevant's practice.
