Niels Ackermann & Sébastien Gobert

Looking for Lenin

Cloître Saint-Trophime

“Lenin lives! Lenin is with you!” Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, this hymn has been more than an ever-present slogan. But as Russia prepares to celebrate the centennial of the October Revolution, Ukraine, the other pillar of the Soviet Empire, will have none of him. Summum of decommunization: as of late 2016, none of the 5,500 statues that formerly dotted the territory is still standing. Lenin has left the square. His face no longer overlooks the metro station. Since the summer of 2015, Niels Ackermann and Sébastien Gobert left to travel through Ukraine in search of crumbled stone and fragments of metal. By means of a collection of photographs, halfway between documentary and symbolism, the authors create a catalogue and typology of this decommunization, capturing the issues of memory for this country that is seeking itself.

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Exhibition curator: Peter Pfrunder.
Exhibition realized in collaboration with the Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur (Switzerland).
Publications: Looking for Lenin, Éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2017 (French edition); Fuel Publishing, 2017 (English edition).
Prints and framing by L’Atelier SHL, Arles.
Wallpaper by Processus, Paris.
With support from the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
See the extension of the Looking for Lenin exhibition at the Avignon TGV station.