Szeeman and Lenin Crossing the Alps

In 2003, German artist Rudolf Herz involved the Swiss curator Halrald Szeemann in his project Lenin on Tour, in which a gigantic sculpture of Lenin and two other Russian Communist heroes is transported by truck to various European cities. The driver’s cabin becomes the set for a long interview. Years after Szeemann’;s death in 2005, the film is an intense portrait of the multifaceted and highly cultivated curator, a key figure in the development and reception of post-World War II contemporary art. Personal memories and tales of the convergence of art history and politics in the early 20th century are intertwined with the narration of his fascination with the utopian Monte Verità community, in Canton Ticino (which hosted Herman Hesse, Hugo Ball and Paul Klee, among others), whose anarchic-philosophical story he reconstructed in 1978 in an exhibition. In this extraordinary document, Szeemann gives a lucid vision of art’s role in society.