THOMAS HIRSCHHORN – GRAMSCI MONUMENT

The work of Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn polarises and shows that art can still trigger heated reactions. But how political is art? What can art effect today, and which concepts of reality and artificiality, of politics and culture influence our consciousness?

The realisation of Hirschhorn's project "Gramsci Monument", a tribute to the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), is the centre of Angelo Alfredo Lüdin's documentary film project.
The film shows Hirschhorn's work in all phases. In the process, the director observes how the artist works with a group of residents of the multi-ethnic Bronx in the development and construction of the "Gramsci Monument". Many of these people live - under economically precarious conditions - far from New York's museum mile and centres of high culture. The film tells of the interactions that arise between artwork and environment and traces the resulting contradictions. It asks what art can achieve in an urban, peripheral environment like the Bronx.