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Rosefeldt, Julian (Photographer/Author); Thorp, David; Grisoni, Tony, Perceval, Luk & Others : Asylum

Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern, Germany, 2002

ISBN 3775715126

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 148 pages. Exhibition monograph. One of the most important photography books of our time. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Julian Rosefeldt: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Julian Rosefeldt. Essays by various contributors. Printed on thick coated stock paper in Germany to the highest standards. In bright red wraparound bellyband DJ with white titles on the cover, as issued. Published on the occasion of the installation/exhibition of the same name that was shown in various venues in the United Kingdom in 2002. Presents Julian Rosefeldt's "Asylum". A moving masterpiece. "Indian flower sellers, Turkish trash collectors, Chinese cooks, and prostitutes in Thailand. Munich-born artist/photographer Julian Rosefeldt confronts the viewers with stereotypical views of foreigners and ethnic minorities. In his seductively opulent tableaux-vivants, he exaggerates and parodies popular conceptions about roles and professions while embedding his protagonists in strangely surreal scenes and ritual contexts. This publication features photographs taken during the shooting of the video, film stills from Rosefeldt's nine 'Asylum' films, essays, and an Interview with the artist" (Publisher's blurb). Surely Rosefeldt is keenly aware of the harrowing suffering that photographers like Sebastiao Salgado and Fazal Sheikh have made it their life-work to commit for posterity. Not a single photograph in his collection, most of which are presented as doublespreads, shows "suffering". In fact, they show the refugees as normal and happy people: Praying, dancing, singing, hustling, having parties, vacationing, and yes, working very hard yet apparently enjoying it. Rosefeldt's point is simple and complex at the same time: There is no question that refugees are stateless, displaced peoples, with none of the legal rights that citizens have and take for granted. Still, after the initial trauma and shock, they adapt to their new, strange, often hostile environments, and get on with their lives. What mystifies and confuses their host-nations is precisely their resilience: Refugees are hopeful survivors, not hopeless dependents. They remind us that you cannot survive if all you try to do is survive. The only way every human being can survive is to live, and this is one of the reasons citizens develop ambivalent if not downright hostile attitudes about them. Still, as the great American novelist John Irving once suggested, "we are all refugees, we are all terminal cases". Rosefeldt shows that "home" is the fantasy and exile the real condition of humanity. An absolute "must-have" title for Julian Rosefeldt collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the bellyband DJ itself by Julian Rosefeldt. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is now collectible. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. A rare signed copy thus. One of the finest artist/photographers of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 3775715126.

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