Fossils

Fossils maps the interlinked logics of extraction at work in ecological collapse and the exploitation of human capital across three short live vignettes. It seeks to challenge both the fatalism of seeing capitalism as a force of nature and the vitalism of imagining nature without humans. The monologue of a decaying skeleton attempting to unionise his undead comrades reflects on class (de)composition. Two decoy trees, echoing the arboreal observation posts of the first world war, reflect on the way humans project meaning onto their natural environment. A many-headed oil spill mediates these perspectives: it is legion, a multitude at once demonic and pathetic, declaiming market values and anticipating their apocalyptic end. Together, these scenes from the near future explore the ways in which value extraction is intensified as new sources of growth become scarce. They examine the relationship between acting and actants, between theatre as a space for representation and performance as a site of action. Deploying Brechtian performance strategies, they stage a demand for collectivity and solidarity in a diminished public sphere.

Pil and Galia Kollectiv are London-based artists, writers and curators working in collaboration. Their work interrogates the organisation of labour and the manifestations of ideology in late capitalism. They have had solo shows at Centre Clark, Montreal, Te Tuhi Center for the Arts, New Zealand and The Showroom Gallery, London. They are the authors of Subversive Performance in the Age of Human Capital (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and Sound Strategies: Music as Ideological Apparatus (Strange Attractor | MIT, 2025). They work as lecturers in Art at University of the Arts London, the University of Reading and the Royal College of Art.

Fossils was made possible with the kind support of UAL stuff research fund award.