TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

The Centre of the Universe present “Triumph of the Will“
a group exhibition curated by Catherine Borra, Gedvile Bunikyte, Olivia Hegarty & Matthew Stone

14th October – 1st November 2009

Featuring works by:

James Balmforth
Gareth Cadwallader
David Ferrando Giraut
Lewis Ronald
Boo Saville
Matthew Stone
SuperBlu

The group exhibition “Triumph of the Will“ emerges from a series of complex questions that begin with Leni Reifenstahl‘s influential 1934 film of the same title. The film was commissioned and funded by Hitler and portrays the euphoric Nazi rise to power. The filming used 90 camera-men who captured over 1 million individuals. It is regarded as a landmark piece of cinema both technically and for its epic renderings of the united body-mass and their messianic leader. Despite Reifenstahl‘s later claims to the contrary, the film exists in collective consciousness as being the “most successful, most purely propagandistic film ever made.“ (Susan Sontag).

How do we understand the aesthetic legacy of this event?

Does any aesthetic embody and bear responsibility for the final solutions of ideology?

In the contexts of both the film and the works in this show, what is the power of the individuals depicted and those implicated as audience?

The Centre of the Universe is a nomadic art space.