The Birth of the Fist
Photo-Film | 2024
With The Birth of the Fist, Ronja Römmelt presents a multilayered photo-film work that brings body, history, and protest into choreographed dialogue. In five precisely staged images, an open hand transforms into a clenched fist – a seemingly simple gesture that, through its slowness and visual language, opens a wide space for reflection.
What happens between openness and resistance?
Why do we clench our fists – and who is watching when we do?
The Birth of the Fist shows a choreographed sequence in which a hand forms from an open gesture into a fist. Captured in five still images, the movement unfolds with visual clarity that invites both documentary and symbolic readings. In the in-between moments, a poetic space emerges – one in which questions of identity, resistance, and collective memory come to the fore.
A key detail is the so-called Holland muscle – a tendon that becomes visible when thumb and little finger are brought together. This anatomical remnant points to our evolutionary past, when our ancestors still walked on all fours. Römmelt connects this physical trace of history with the symbol of the fist – a universal sign of resistance, solidarity, and social movement.
In The Birth of the Fist, the camera is not merely a witness – it actively intervenes in the choreography. The flash disrupts the motion, freezes it, directs the gaze. A field of tension emerges between visibility, control, and documentation.
Who is watching whom?
Are we the blinding spotlight of a police vehicle capturing a night assembly?
The journalist documenting?
The scientist in a lab, observing each movement analytically?
The work also reflects on the role of visual media in social movements – as a means of recording, a tool of power, or a witness to unfolding events.
Römmelt’s work fuses political urgency with formal reduction. The clear, almost silent visual language points to the body’s inherent power as a medium of expression.
Though visually connected to earlier works, The Birth of the Fist marks a new phase in Römmelt’s artistic practice: focused, precise, and attuned to the urgency of the present.
Choreography:
Ronja Römmelt
Performer:
Ronja Römmelt
Photography:
Ronja Römmelt
Lighting:
Ronja Römmelt
Sound:
Ronja Römmelt
Production:
STUDIO RR
The Birth of the Fist
Photo-Film | 2024
With The Birth of the Fist, Ronja Römmelt presents a multilayered photo-film work that brings body, history, and protest into choreographed dialogue. In five precisely staged images, an open hand transforms into a clenched fist – a seemingly simple gesture that, through its slowness and visual language, opens a wide space for reflection.
What happens between openness and resistance?
Why do we clench our fists – and who is watching when we do?
The Birth of the Fist shows a choreographed sequence in which a hand forms from an open gesture into a fist. Captured in five still images, the movement unfolds with visual clarity that invites both documentary and symbolic readings. In the in-between moments, a poetic space emerges – one in which questions of identity, resistance, and collective memory come to the fore.
A key detail is the so-called Holland muscle – a tendon that becomes visible when thumb and little finger are brought together. This anatomical remnant points to our evolutionary past, when our ancestors still walked on all fours. Römmelt connects this physical trace of history with the symbol of the fist – a universal sign of resistance, solidarity, and social movement.
In The Birth of the Fist, the camera is not merely a witness – it actively intervenes in the choreography. The flash disrupts the motion, freezes it, directs the gaze. A field of tension emerges between visibility, control, and documentation.
Who is watching whom?
Are we the blinding spotlight of a police vehicle capturing a night assembly?
The journalist documenting?
The scientist in a lab, observing each movement analytically?
The work also reflects on the role of visual media in social movements – as a means of recording, a tool of power, or a witness to unfolding events.
Römmelt’s work fuses political urgency with formal reduction. The clear, almost silent visual language points to the body’s inherent power as a medium of expression.
Though visually connected to earlier works, The Birth of the Fist marks a new phase in Römmelt’s artistic practice: focused, precise, and attuned to the urgency of the present.
Choreography:
Ronja Römmelt
Performer:
Ronja Römmelt
Photography:
Ronja Römmelt
Lighting:
Ronja Römmelt
Sound:
Ronja Römmelt
Production:
STUDIO RR