Artworks
Marx and Smith at Occupy Wall Street
video
![Marx and Smith at Occupy Wall Street [Marx e Smith na Occupy Wall Street]](https://cms.macam.pt/storage/uploads/thumbs/inarte-work-3325_w840.jpg)
Date
2011
Technique
Video, 16:9, colour, sound, 7'19''
- Baby Marx
by Pedro Reyes began in 2008 in the context of television, as a puppet show. Quickly the project shifted to further develop its links with experimental and performative contemporary art. At the crossroads of installation, theatre and video, the series features two animated rod puppets personifying the German theoretician Karl Marx (1818-1883) and the Scottish philosopher and economist, Adam Smith (1723-1790). In this first part, the outdoor urban set appears as the other main component. Meaningfully, Reyes shot the film during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest movement in New York, which aimed at challenging corporate greed, centralised power and inequalities.
Using procedures of reportage filmmaking combined with an offbeat comic mode, the play stages the metaphorical collision between two major political-economic currents, Socialism and Capitalism. Respectively based on the concepts of Altruism and Self-Interest, both ideological trends and their historical confrontation are personified by the two small-scale handcrafted puppets and their fictional dialogue against the background of the global financial crisis of the Twenty-first century. Amidst the turmoil, both figures act according to their philosophy. While Marx sees the opportunity for a new rise of Socialism and discusses to no avail, Smith seizes a different kind of chance.
Apart from the captivating visual aspects, including the abstract yet evocative three-dimensional design used for the characters' heads, which resulted from a collaborative work with the Japanese puppet maker Takumi Ota, voice, language and philosophical content are central to the piece. Strategies from social communication and education are used to bring about complex matters and reflections. Wisely, it's by means of comedy that Reyes succeeds in outlining a whole chapter of the history of economic thoughts and of the political tensions and forces they triggered. The brilliant sense of humour pervading the whole work manifests itself until the final scene with the unexpected flight of public money capital via a - golden parachute
.
KS
by Pedro Reyes began in 2008 in the context of television, as a puppet show. Quickly the project shifted to further develop its links with experimental and performative contemporary art. At the crossroads of installation, theatre and video, the series features two animated rod puppets personifying the German theoretician Karl Marx (1818-1883) and the Scottish philosopher and economist, Adam Smith (1723-1790). In this first part, the outdoor urban set appears as the other main component. Meaningfully, Reyes shot the film during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest movement in New York, which aimed at challenging corporate greed, centralised power and inequalities.
Using procedures of reportage filmmaking combined with an offbeat comic mode, the play stages the metaphorical collision between two major political-economic currents, Socialism and Capitalism. Respectively based on the concepts of Altruism and Self-Interest, both ideological trends and their historical confrontation are personified by the two small-scale handcrafted puppets and their fictional dialogue against the background of the global financial crisis of the Twenty-first century. Amidst the turmoil, both figures act according to their philosophy. While Marx sees the opportunity for a new rise of Socialism and discusses to no avail, Smith seizes a different kind of chance.
Apart from the captivating visual aspects, including the abstract yet evocative three-dimensional design used for the characters' heads, which resulted from a collaborative work with the Japanese puppet maker Takumi Ota, voice, language and philosophical content are central to the piece. Strategies from social communication and education are used to bring about complex matters and reflections. Wisely, it's by means of comedy that Reyes succeeds in outlining a whole chapter of the history of economic thoughts and of the political tensions and forces they triggered. The brilliant sense of humour pervading the whole work manifests itself until the final scene with the unexpected flight of public money capital via a - golden parachute
.
KS