Intro
Phil Collins: Free Foto Lab
June 10–August 13 2006
Neue Kunst Halle St. Gallen, St. Gallen
Content
The project 'Free Fotolab', from which the exhibition took its title, called for publicly-sourced, undeveloped rolls of film to be developed by the artist on the condition that the universal rights for the resulting images be transferred to the artist. This new commission, along with Collins’ irreverent new work 'My Adoption' (2006)—a plaque that the artist sent to the mayor of St. Gallen proposing his “adoption” by the city as their official Phil Collins, distinguishing him from the renowned musician of the same name who lives in the french part of Switzerland—were presented in the exhibition alongside previously made works such as Britney (2001–2003) where the artist rephotographed street posters of the American pop singer after they had been tagged and vandalized.
The legendary two-channel video installation 'They Shoot Horses' (2004) where the artist asked for the participation of people in Ramallah, Palestinia in a disco marathon completed the major solo show. The title of the work refers to the American author Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel 'They Shoot Horses, Don’t They,' which features a dance marathon held during the Great Depression in the United States.
