Communists Like Us is both a performance work and a two-channel and single – channel projection, each of which explores the potentiality of a 16- minute sequence from La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967). In this sequence, the indexical figure of activist and philosopher Francis Jeanson argues with the fictional character of Véronique, his Maoist student, played by Anne Wiasemsky. The English subtitles of the sequence are transcribed onto the recto and the verso of a series of mid- century archival photographs from a Soviet agency that depict scenes of communist friendship. Delegations of Indian, Soviet, and Chinese feminists are seen visiting museums, factories, schools, nurseries, and laboratories, participating in conferences, meetings, plenary sessions, and discussions. The contrapuntal conversation between photography, subtitle, and music from composers Cornelius Cardew and Ennio Moricone brings a series of discrepant engagements with Maoism into dialogue with each other.

Intstallation view, Halle 14, Leipzig 2012 
© Produzieren/ Arthur Zalewski

Communists Like Us
2006/2010
HD video, 16:9, color, sound
23 min.

Courtesy The Otolith Group & LUX, London
© the artists.