Julian Röder: World Wide Order

Julian Röder’s World Wide Order examines the relationship between political power and economics. Hatje Cantz published the book in 2014 to accompany an exhibition at Kunsthalle Erfurt, 18 July–28 September. The work asks what happens when a market system driven by growth and demand begins to operate on its own momentum, giving a common context to different photographic projects.

The Summits is one of the series discussed, and brought the Berlin photographer international attention. Röder photographed the protests that gathered around various G8 meetings, among them Genoa in 2001, where more than 300,000 people took to the streets and a demonstrator was shot by police. These protests provide a specific setting for examining political power and public resistance.

The 2014 book also discusses Mission and Task, which turns to Europe’s outer borders and to the core ideas a society holds about itself. Across both bodies of work Röder lets his series build on one another in content, and he is deliberate about form: compositions that echo the battle scenes of history painting, or borrow advertising’s visual pull, so that the pictures can hold their own within the daily flood of images.

The volume prints 74 photographs across 132 pages, a hardcover of 247 by 317 millimetres, with German and English texts. Elisabeth Giers, Sean O’Toole, Matthias Flügge, Julian Röder and Kolja Reichert contribute texts; Maria M. Koehn designed the book.

For a collector, the particular interest is the connection between a defined political subject and a deliberate pictorial language. The book brings the summit protests and the work on Europe’s borders into an account of power and economic structures. Röder’s use of references to history painting and advertising makes the formation of a persuasive image part of that enquiry, while the 2014 publication fixes these projects at a specific stage of their development.

Berlin photographer Julian Röder (* 1981) has garnered international attention for his series The Summits on the protests that took place surrounding various G8 summits. Röder thus documented the riots of Genoa in 2001, where over 300,000 people took to the streets and a demonstrator was shot by police. The connection between power and economics is the central theme of the photographer’s work. What oc­curs when the market system—driven by the princi­ples of generating growth and demand—begins to operate on its own accord? Röder’s series are defined by a clear visual language, and his works build upon each other in terms of content. He consciously em­ploys compositions that recall battle scenes in histor­ical paintings or have the visual pull advertising as a means of distinguishing his work within the everyday flood of images that we encounter. Röder has also created unsettling images for his most recent series Mission and Task, which focuses on the outer borders of Europe and challenges the core concepts of our self-image.
 
Ausstellung/Exhibition: Kunsthalle Erfurt 18.7.– 28.9.2014

Designed by: Maria M. Koehn
Texts by: Elisabeth Giers, Sean O'Toole, Matthias Flügge, Julian Röder, Kolja Reichert
German, English
July 2014, 132 Pages , 74 Photos
hardcover
247mm x 317mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-3855-2

Publisher page editorial text:
| Power, violence, and the established order: images of the global marketplace
Berlin photographer Julian Röder (* 1981) has garnered international attention for his series The Summits on the protests that took place surrounding various G8 summits. Röder thus documented the riots of Genoa in 2001, where over 300,000 people took to the streets and a demonstrator was shot by police. The connection between power and economics is the central theme of the photographer’s work. What oc­curs when the market system—driven by the princi­ples of generating growth and demand—begins to operate on its own accord? Röder’s series are defined by a clear visual language, and his works build upon each other in terms of content. He consciously em­ploys compositions that recall battle scenes in histor­ical paintings or have the visual pull advertising as a means of distinguishing his work within the everyday flood of images that we encounter. Röder has also created unsettling images for his most recent series Mission and Task, which focuses on the outer borders of Europe and challenges the core concepts of our self-image.
 

Ausstellung/Exhibition: Kunsthalle Erfurt 18.7.– 28.9.2014

Publisher source ↗