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Way of the Shovel

Images

Phil Collins, Video still, marxism today (prologue), 2010, HD video (color and black-and-white, sound), 35 minutes

Courtesy of Shady Lane Productions and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Phil Collins, Video still, marxism today (prologue), 2010, HD video (color and black-and-white, sound), 35 minutes

Courtesy of Shady Lane Productions and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
A collage image features Joseph Stalin walking, a group of soliders smiling, and a crowd of people marching, carrying sign—all juxtaposed against the red and yellow Communist flag.

Lene Berg, Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of a Woman with Moustache (Communists [Joseph Stalin and Pablo Picasso]), 2008

Courtesy of the artist

Sophie Nys, Still from Lénine en pensant, 2006, Video, 7 minutes

Courtesy the artist

Raphaël Grisey, Production photo, Sand Quarry, 2005

Courtesy of the artist

Raphaël Grisey, Video still, Sand Quarry, 2005, Video (color and black-and-white, sound), 6 minutes

Courtesy of the artist
A black-and-white image still shows a large stone bust of Vladimir Lenin's head with closed caption text reading "We realise clearly that that is not very much, in comparison with the needs of the working women,."

Sophie Nys, Still from Lénine en pensant, 2006, Video, 7 minutes

Courtesy the artist

About

In conjunction with The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology, MCA Screen presents six artists' films and videos under the rubric of an alternative “history channel.” These works by Lene Berg, Phil Collins, Raphaël Grisey, Aleksander Komarov, Sophie Nys, and Anri Sala address recent political history in varying degrees of directness, with a strong focus on the Cold War and the flaws of Soviet communism. In the process they reveal how contemporary art allows for a reconsideration of history often no longer possible within a mainstream media culture obsessed by novelty and speed.

Artist films vary in length from 6 to 35 minutes and run in a loop.