Phil Collins: Marxism Today (prologue) at BFI

Artist Phil Collins talks about his installation marxism today, at BFI Southbank's Gallery from 3 February - 10 April 2011. The work features Collins' short film marxism today (prologue) (2010), first shown at the 6th Berlin Biennale, and a new companion video, use! value! exchange! (2010), which together explore through archive footage and contemporary interviews what became of Marxist Leninist teachers' expertise after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Collins suggests that Westerners today are lucky, as we have a sense of ownership of our culture, whereas in Berlin, there is a sense of embarrassment as regards the past and subsequently memories of childhood school groups and songs have fallen away. Collins further describes why he has centred his research on the impact that the loss of this heritage has had on the German people.


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