Event
MARX200: Politics – Theory – Socialism
04 May 2018 – 05 May 2018
HAU 1 Hebbel am Ufer
Berlin, Germany
The award-winning artist Phil Collins returns to HAU Hebbel am Ufer with the German premiere of his film "Ceremony".
The award-winning artist Phil Collins returns to HAU Hebbel am Ufer with the German premiere of his film "Ceremony". Last summer he returned Engels home to Manchester, in the form of a decommissioned Soviet-era statue which he brought from Ukraine and inaugurated in the city centre as a permanent monument. Over the course of a year, Collins collaborated with local organisations, activists and communities to explore Engels’ legacy in austerity Britain and the lives of workers today. Collins describes Ceremony as ‘the search for a statue of Engels and its long journey, the everyday stories of people from Manchester, and a homecoming party to inaugurate the statue’.
At the inauguration a crowd of thousands gathered to take part in a live event which included short films, scripted performances, a soundtrack by Demdike Stare and Mica Levi, a new workers’ anthem by Gruff Rhys, and Engels Exchange — a one-day transformation of the ‘privately owned public space’ into a realm of shared ideas, experience and the kind of good time which Engels loved.
A film interweaving different strands of the project was broadcast on the BBC as part of a season marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution. In harrowing times for so many Engels’ insights correlate to our contemporary situation with an alarming accuracy, making it crucial more than ever to remember the spirit of solidarity and dignity which beat at the heart of his work.
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