The exhibition “Julika Rudelius. The Emperor’s New Mall” at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art invites visitors to sharpen their focus on the play with surfaces and social stagings. Rudelius, who was born in Cologne in 1968 and now lives in Amsterdam, explores the world of stereotypes, status symbols and milieus in her video works, photographs and performances. She approaches people and their outward appearances with the curiosity to track down the previously unknown and visualise the often contradictory mechanisms of social affiliation and self-presentation.
At the centre of the exhibition is the question of the relationship between individual self-presentation and social conditioning. How much of our appearance, gestures and attitudes are actually self-chosen — and how much corresponds to deeply rooted norms and capitalist values? The work “Double Surface” (2025) and other current video works challenge the audience to scrutinise themselves and their fascination with shiny surfaces, subtle status signals and their effect anew. In this way, Rudelius opens up a fascinating field of experimentation on the longing for belonging and individuality in a world characterised by external impact.
