MARX

In 1971, a sculpture designed by Lew Kerbel depicting the face of Karl Marx was inaugurated in Chemnitz, then Karl-Karx-Stadt. Kerbel was known for his monumental statues, such as the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin. The Marx monument is located in the city center of Chemnitz and is still a landmark of the city.

The film “Marx” (24 h Color / Sound, 2020) was shot on September 21 and 22, 2020. With a single, fixed camera shot, the statue was filmed for 24 hours, starting at 12 noon on part of the monumental face, with light reflecting off its strongly contoured bronze surface.

The 24-hour close-up transforms the political icon into a landscape subject to constant change under the surrounding light conditions. The soundtrack reproduces the sounds of this environment without revealing the corresponding events or actors. In addition to the sounds of traffic and passers-by, the chimes of the nearby town hall come to the fore.

The film was shot during the autumnal equinox, when day and night are the same length; it is also screened at the equinox, in different locations. In each instance the images travel around the globe and can be seen in different time zones. Each location begins the screening at 12 noon local time. The film is only to be seen in this way, in a windowless room at each site. The fact that the narrated or filmed time coincides perfectly with duration, ie. the screening time, is emphasized by the chimes of the town hall clock. These stylistic devices come together to create a kind of time capsule.

With “Marx”, Olaf Nicolai (*1962 in Halle an der Saale) pointedly poses the question of the course of time, its measurement and meaning in both physical and philosophical terms. Nicolai grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt and is thus biographically connected to the film’s leitmotif. The film ends with a quote by Danish poet Inger Christensen: “Nobody knows in spite of everything whether the universe is counting backwards while we count faithfully forward.”

In Athens “MARX” is screened in a post-industrial factory founded in 1970’s. At that era, the building complex marked the area as a landmark in the industry of electric appliances (B.H.K, AEG). Today, the building complex still acts as an open-ended landmark due to its size and architectural expression. The topography of which is yet to be defined via a contemporary approach that aligns with the developing semi-industrial fabric of Moschato – Tavros.

Participating Institutions (in order of film screening or time zone):

TIMES MUSEUM / Guanghzou / MAUDI, Tbilisi / AL MA’MAL FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, Jerusalem / CINEMATHEQUE DE TANGER, Tangier / GARAGE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Moscow / GOETHE INSTITUT, Sofia / LOCUS ATHENS, Athens / HAUS DER KULTUREN DER WELT, Berlin / HAUS DER KUNST, Munich / MACRO: MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Rome / MGML: MUSEUM AND GALLERIES OF LJUBLJANA, Ljubljana / ICA: INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, London / FOGO ISLAND ARTS, Fogo Island / SUBTE-INTENDENCIADE DE MONTEVIDEO, Montevideo / ARTE CONTINUA LA HABANNA, Havana / VILLA AURORA, Los Angeles