The videos and photographs of Julika Rudelius (b.  Cologne, 1968) concern themes that range from patterns of social behavior and prejudices to role clichés, identity, and cultural hegemony. Rudelius sees art as a form of social expression, as a communicative tool to draw attention to seemingly trivial observations of everyday life and at the same time to reveal their socially complex features.

The exhibition at the Ursula Blickle Stiftung presents, for the first time in Germany, a large retrospective by the artist, who lives in Amsterdam and New York. Julika Rudelius will present her latest video, Dressage, 2009. In it, the artist presents a scenario characterized by young girls between the ages of ten and twelve from New York’s high society. At once rapt and completely self-confident, these almost artificial-seeming wunderkinder in Chanel outfits move in a world filled with mobile phones, stylists, and VIP personalities. In a rousing finale, the anonymous-looking setting in which they are filmed is dissected with brutish elegance.

Julika Rudelius was shown previously at the Ursula Blickle Stiftung, represented by the video Train, 2001, in the exhibition Dark Spring, curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen and Liam Gillick in 2002.