Berlin based artist Phil Collins (born 1970, England) has a performance-based and conceptual practice that uses video and photography to investigate the nuances of interpersonal relations within global communities. Collins has extensively pursued his practice since the early 2000’s across places that have experienced geopolitical unrest, cities such as Baghdad, Belgrade, Bogotá, and most recently, Jakarta.
In his films, photographs, installations and live events Berlin based artist Phil Collins (born 1970, England) explores the nuances of social relations in various locations and global communities. He often subverts the conventions of video art and documentary to focus on the inherent contradictions of individual and collective systems of representation. Dissecting the political and aesthetic implications of popular visual formats, Collins’ works indicate that the meaning of a picture —be it still or moving— resides neither in its form nor its subject-matter, but in the transferences it establishes between the producer, the subject and the viewer. Throughout, Collins maintains a combination of critical consciousness, immediacy, and the recognition of the camera’s ambivalent potential as an agent of emancipation and exploitation, desire and betrayal.
Collins is based in Berlin and Cologne, where he is a professor of video art at the Kunsthochschule für Medien. His works are held in significant public collections such as, among others, Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Recent solo exhibitions include Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); British Film Institute, London (2011); Tramway, Glasgow (2009); Dallas Museum of Art (2007); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Tate Britain, London (both 2006). Group exhibitions include Revolution vs. Revolution, Beirut Art Center and Hors Pistes 2012, Centre Pompidou, Paris (both 2012); Museum der Wünsche, MUMOK, Vienna; Berlin 2000-20011, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; and Ostalgia, New Museum, New York (all 2011); as well as biennales in Singapore (2011), Berlin (2010), and Istanbul (2005). Collins’ films have been shown at international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Oberhausen, and Berlin.