Auditions for a Revolution

In the film Auditions for a Revolution we see a young American’s audition for roles in a re-enactment of the first televised revolution, the 1989 Romanian revolution. The young people imitate the spoken and physical language of the revolution. However, it is not their language, the words become abstract and the aestheticized gestures seem to be powerless. Irina Botea juxtaposes these images with original footage of the actual revolution*. This way we can compare the performance with the original of 1989. The tense relations between the constructed versus the spontaneous unfolding of historical events becomes apparent, as well as the manner in which a historical events gets transmitted and the possibility or impossibility of revolution today.

*Courtesy Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica film “Videogram of a Revolution,” also included in the exhibition.