This documentary short captures Anne Imhof as she stages her immersive work DOOM: House of Hope (2025), from the experimentation of the rehearsal room to the excitement and energy of the performance.
New York, New York—August 18, 2025—Art21 announces the release of Anne Imhof: DOOM, a new documentary film following celebrated performance artist Anne Imhof as she creates her largest work to date. Exploring archetypes of youth culture and ever-shifting norms, DOOM: House of Hope (2025) transformed the Park Avenue Armory’s historic Drill Hall into a prom-decorated gymnasium filled with streamers, balloons, and Cadillac Escalades. The new film accompanies Imhof as she stages Romeo and Juliet in reverse, collaging dance, music, skateboarding, and more in a roving three-hour performance.
Directed by Ian Forster, the latest installment of Art21’s Extended Play digital series premieres online Wednesday, August 20, 2025, at 12pm ET on Art21.org and YouTube.
As the leading independent producer documenting the art of our time, Art21 was established with a mission to expand access to artists and their ideas, meet audiences where they are, and explore the salient connections between artists and their communities. To date, Art21 has created 80+ hours of films documenting over 300 artists across six continents.
Always destabilizing genre, medium, and discipline, Imhof brings together elements from the classical to the contemporary to explore youth, art criticism, and more. Alongside DOOM, the film captures the artist’s 2024 exhibition Wish You Were Gay, where she displayed early video works alongside new sculptures and paintings, exploring her own youth and offering deeper insight into the projects and personal histories that inspired DOOM.
“DOOM was telling the story of these wounds,” says the artist. “In my case, the wound was shaped into a diamond. I felt this art was this valuable thing in me that I could use, but the shaping wasn’t always easy.”
“Anne’s performance, at the center of this documentary, was created leading up to the presidential election and staged just after Trump’s inauguration,” says Ian Forster, director and Art21 senior producer. “It addresses bodily autonomy and the freedom to love openly without threat or government interference. These freedoms are now under greater assault, which underscores the urgency of Anne’s message and the artist’s role in keeping such issues at the center of public consciousness.”
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Art21’s Extended Play digital series provides unmediated, behind-the-scenes access to today’s leading artists. Through process-revealing footage and intimate interviews, these curatorially driven films chronicle a diverse scale of international projects, ranging from major commissions to exploratory sketches. Produced in close collaboration with artists, Extended Play uncovers provocative ideas, timely cultural influences, and biographical anecdotes that inspire the artists featured throughout the series.
Extended Play is made possible with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Art21 Contemporary Council, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Every Page Foundation, and the Henry Nias Foundation.
Art21 documents the art of our time through the words and works of the most impactful artists working today. Operating at the nexus of contemporary art and film, Art21 produces intimate portraits of artists at crucial moments of creation, inviting audiences to see the world from an artist’s perspective. From its award-winning public television series to in-person public programs, education initiatives, and film screenings, to broadcasting documentary films free, online, and across social media platforms, the independent nonprofit is dedicated to meeting audiences where they are and to making contemporary art accessible to all. For more information, visit Art21.org.
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