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marxism today (prologue)
by Phil Collins
2010, 35′
Presented at The Screen of the Arts 2010
Directed and Produced by: Phil Collins
Photography: Mattias Schellenberg
Editing: Cristóvão A. Dos Reis
Music: Cristóvão A. Dos Reis
Photography: Mattias Schellenberg
Editing: Cristóvão A. Dos Reis
Music: Cristóvão A. Dos Reis
Production: Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival, Berlin Biennale, Cornerhouse, Berliner Künstlerprogramm/DAAD, Film and Video Umbrella, Shady Lane Productions
Produced for the Berlin Biennial 2010, “marxism today (prologue)” tells the story of three former Marxist-Leninist philosophy teachers shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. To realize his project, which, as per the subtitle, is the prologue to a future episode set in Manchester schools, Phil Collins published a newspaper ad which received over 200 answers, from Russian and East German ex-professors and ex-academics between 40 and 70 years of age. Picked from a select group of the ex-teachers the artist met personally, three women, Petra Mgoza-Zeckay, Andrea Ferber and Marianne Klotz, the latter accompanied by her daughter Ulrike, speak to the camera about their past and present situations.
Accompanied by an evocative soundtrack by Nick Powell and Laetizia Sadier, of the group “Stereolab”, Phil Collins’ work re-traces a bit of recent history from a double perspective: the individual and the social. A story in which the three protagonists’ interviews are interspersed with archival TV footage that illustrates school-teaching, the spread of pedagogic theories and the performance of ex-East German athletes.
Phil Collins. Born in Runcorn (UK) in 1970, he lives and works between Berlin and Glasgow. He is a visual artist, photographer and film-maker. Among the winners of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Arts (2001), in 2006 he was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize with the video piece The Return of The Real. In 2008 he was the artist in residence for the Berliner Künstlerprogramm/DAAD.
Selected Filmography
Tra le sue recenti mostre personali si segnalano: 2006-7 Tate Britain; 2007 They Shoot Horses, National Gallery of Canada; The World Won’t Listen, Dallas Museum of Art; 2008 Phil Collins: soy mi madre, Aspen Art Museum; 2009 When Slaves Love Each Other, It’s Not Love, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; The World Won’t Listen, Tramway, Glasgow; 2010 Jarla Partilager, Stoccolma; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Berlin / Forum Expanded, 60th Berlin International Film Festival, DAAD galerie, Berlin; Phil Collins, The Collection, Lincoln.
Tra le sue recenti mostre personali si segnalano: 2006-7 Tate Britain; 2007 They Shoot Horses, National Gallery of Canada; The World Won’t Listen, Dallas Museum of Art; 2008 Phil Collins: soy mi madre, Aspen Art Museum; 2009 When Slaves Love Each Other, It’s Not Love, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; The World Won’t Listen, Tramway, Glasgow; 2010 Jarla Partilager, Stoccolma; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Berlin / Forum Expanded, 60th Berlin International Film Festival, DAAD galerie, Berlin; Phil Collins, The Collection, Lincoln.