Phil Collins: New Work November 2, 2006

British artist Phil Collins has made work in a number of conflicted geo-political sites around the world, including Belfast, Belgrade, Baghdad and Ramallah, creating nuanced representations of people and places. In a departure from much traditional documentary and site-specific practice, Collins engages politics and pop culture in tandem, and often solicits the participation of the communities in which he is working. This latest installment of the New Work series centers around Collins' 2004 video installation 'el mundo no escuchara/the world won't listen,' which features young people in Bogota, Colombia, singing along to backing tracks from the 1987 album of the same name by the British group The Smiths. Within the fraught context of Bogota, The Smiths' melancholic pop takes on new poignancy, asking you to listen to what the rest of the world won't. Collins is a nominee for the 2006 Turner Prize from Tate Britain in London.