Phil Collins: Learning Serbian
Artist Phil Collins Courtesy of the Power Plant
Glasgow- and Berlin-based video artist Phil Collins is perhaps best known for his compelling and sometimes provocative video works that walk the line between documentary and performance-art practices. In 2004’s they shoot horses, for instance, Collins documented several teenaged contestants participating in a seven-hour disco dance marathon in Palestine. Meanwhile, the return of the real, which represented the artist’s work during his Turner Prize nomination in 2006, offered a self-reflexive reportage-style investigation into the stories of reality-TV participants who felt their lives had been ruined by their appearances on television.
Phil Collins zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom) 2008 Video still Courtesy of the artist
This weekend, Toronto audiences will get a rare glimpse into Collins’ ongoing practice when the artist screens and speaks about his newest film as part of the Power Plant’s International Lecture Series at Harbourfront Centre. Commissioned by the 55th Carnegie International, zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom)—or “why I don’t speak Serbian (in Serbian)”—is Collins’ investigation of Kosovo residents’ complicated relationship with the disappearing Serbo-Croat language. Shot in gritty, black and white, 16-mm film, Collins’ new piece, like much of his past practice, probes the way that language shapes life, asking, as the artist puts it, “How does language form experience? And how, when a shared language becomes taboo in a given social context, might it also create a space for a complex picture of recent conflict and personal narratives?” (235 Queens Quay W, Toronto ON)
Phil Collins zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom) 2008 Video still Courtesy of the artist
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