“Looking for Lenin” an exhibition by Swiss photographer Niels Ackermann in Beirut
Lebanon
March 19, 2018
Exhibition opening
From 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Location
Artlab gallery, Gemmayzeh, Beirut
March 19, 2018 till March 24, 2018
Exhibition hours
From 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
March 22, 2018
Swiss Art Talks | Niels Ackermann: Looking for Lenin
From 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Location
Sursock, Modern Art Museum
“In the process of decommunisation, Ukraine has toppled all its Lenin monuments. The photo essay documents the inglorious fate of these Soviet statues, following their often violent removal”
Photographer Niels Ackermann and journalist Sébastien Gobert scoured the country for a year between 2015 and 2016, in search of the remains of these toppled figures. They are found in the most unlikely places: Lenin inhabits gardens, scrap yards and store rooms. He has fallen on hard times – cut into pieces, daubed with paint, turned into a Cossack or Darth Vader. Yet despite every attempt to reduce their status, the monuments retain a sinister quality, resisting all efforts to separate them from their history.
‘Looking for Lenin” was published in a book and exhibited for the first time during Les Rencontres d’Arles photo festival in France in 2017.
Exhibition curators : Aline Manoukian and Dimitri Haddad
Note: The artist will be absent at the opening but will give a talk at the Sursock Museum on March 22 as part of the Swiss Art Talks.
