Open Seminar: Phil Collins in Context is organized with students enrolled in the Harvard University course Falling from the Grip of Grace: Critical Readings on Contemporary Art and Exhibitions. Taught by CCVA director James Voorhies, the course undertakes a study of contemporary art and curatorial practice with a focused look at the work Phil Collins. 

As an integral component of the exhibition Phil Collins: A Learning Site, this public forum explores the potential of inserting pedagogical activity typically reserved for the private realm into the public spheres of exhibitions and programs to critically reflect together on the art and filmmaking of Collins within the context of spectatorship, participation, and social engagement. This event is the second in a series of Open Seminars. In this seminar questions generated by students and visiting public will guide discussions about the films This Unfortunate Thing Between Us (2011), Tomorrow Is Always Too Long (2014); the meaning of style (2011); marxism today (prologue) (2010); how to make a refugee (1999), and other excerpts viewed as part of the evening’s activity. 

Phil Collins

Phil Collins is a British-born filmmaker, visual artist, cultural organizer, and educator based in Berlin and Wuppertal. His diverse practice is characterized by close engagements with place and communities, which over the years have included, amongst others, disco-dancing Palestinians, fans of The Smiths across three continents, Kosovan-Albanian refugees, the youth of Baghdad, anti-fascist skinheads in Malaysia, the homeless population of Cologne, and teachers of Marxism-Leninism from the former German Democratic Republic. Rather than static portraits, the works resulting from these collaborations articulate the nuances of relations embedded in the aesthetic regimes and economies that define everyday existence, from news and politics to entertainment and shopping. Throughout, Collins upholds a commitment to myriad forms of experience across the social spectrum, and an interest in the contradictory impulses of intimacy and desire within the public sphere. 

Collins’s works are represented in collections such as those of Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Tate Gallery, London; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In Spring 2016 his first feature film Tomorrow Is Always Too Long (2014) will be theatrically released in Germany.

Since 2011 Collins is Professor of Video Art and Performance at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.

Phil Collins: A Learning Site

Phil Collins: A Learning Site is a constellation of curatorial and academic activities dedicated to experiencing and studying the work of one of contemporary art’s most engaging voices.  

Support is partially provided by the Film Study Center at Harvard University, Harvard Film Archive, and the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities. 

Agency for Critical Inquiry

Open Seminar: Phil Collins in Context exhibition is part of the CCVA initiative Agency for Critical Inquiry, an open invitation to academic and Boston-area communities to connect with the Carpenter Center, forging a site for collective learning in the public realm.