Phil Collins - no, not that one!
I know what you're thinking, but no, I am not gonna write about that Phil Collins that first comes to your mind. I am writing about Turner Prize Nominee, British Video Artist Phil Collins. I met him when he presented his work "Return of the Real" at the ZKM Münster. This piece documents what happened to people who appeared in a reality TV show in Turkey and how their appearance on the screen affected their lives. It was one of those rainy summer days in 2007, the sculpture projects münster 07 had ravaged the city and right before the opening panel dicussion was about to start te heavens opened and poured heavy showers down onto the earth. Therefore not many made their way into the ZKM, but we would not be nog nog if we let ourselves be scared away from art by a few gallons of rain! So we were among the few who listened to his charming Scottish accent and and had a beer and a chat with him afterwards. But it is not his boyish charme he kept into his late 30s, the hints of a beer belly around his hips or the sympathic gesture with which he gave us beer, but his connection to Southeastern Europe, namely Serbia. Having lived in Belgrade for a while before comming to Berlin, one of his newer pieces has to be inspired by this period: "zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom)— “why I don’t speak Serbian (in Serbian)" about Albanians in Kosovo who used to speak Serbian but pretend to have forgotten it since the Albanian independence. Read more here.
If you are in Berlin an want to get a peek at this chap, make your way to Temporäre Kunsthalle on February 4th where his new Berlinale inspired work "Autokino" opens. Wild wild horses could not drag me way.
JEF
