For many years Gelatin and Liam Gillick have discussed how to work together. The result is the exhibition Stinking Dawn: the production of a full length feature film at Kunsthalle Wien. The concept, script and staging have been developed in a constant exchange between the artists. The film will examine the limits of human tolerance in the face of oppression, political crisis and excessive self-delusion. It follows the destiny of four privileged young people who grow up at a time of crisis and move through various stages of development and self-reflection towards a final moment of collapse.
During the shooting period (July 4–13), the artists will be joined by many artist friends and long term collaborators. All visitors to the exhibition will be potential extras inside a sprawling modifiable stage setting—a monumental faux-stone toyblock architecture of colonnades, amphitheaters, night-club interiors, and a prison.
The protagonists personify “pathetic young snobs” who try to keep afloat in what already could only be called post-leftism. What initially sounds like the realization of a socialist pipe dream quickly turns into a sophisticated interrogation of ideals and values that are being eroded before our eyes by the contemporary “post-utopian situation”—a very real set of fears, envy, and conformism fanned by the “neoliberal counter-reformation.”