My Home Is a Dark and Cloud-Hung Land

Synopsis

In My Home Is a Dark and Cloud-Hung Land, Julian Rosefeldt critically explores the German term Heimat, which refers to the sentiment of feeling at home, by featuring the forest as a complex motif. While individual figures-recognizable as references to the Romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich-interact on three screens in absurd ways with the nature surrounding them, a bizarre stage performance blending a forest setting and an opera hall unfolds on the fourth screen. In numerous quotes and references, literary narratives, fairy tales, and mythology are interwoven with German history, especially in reference to the Nazi period. The forest appears as a projection surface of German identity, ranging from closeness to nature to ideological appropriation.