[yt] This is the original teaser for Baby Marx, an ongoing project by the Mexican artist Pedro Reyes that explores the intersections of mass entertainment, ideology and contemporary art. The teaser was produced for the Yokohama Triennial in Japan in 2008, and was followed by a television pilot shot in Mexico City in 2009. Baby Marx at the Walker uses the tools and procedures of documentary filmmaking to develop and expand on the questions raised by the project to date.

SINOPSIS:

The story takes place in a library that was founded by a philanthropist named Monimus Sogol, who had two children. One of them, Miss Lena, is the librarian, and the other, Philippe, is a pampered kid who invests his father’s inheritance in the stock market just before the 2008 crash, and loses it all. Philippe tries to persuade his sister to sell the library, and in order to soften up their relationship, he sends her an expensive gift - the “intelligent” microwave oven, Smart-O-Wave. Three kids spend their afternoons at the library; one day, helping the librarian, one of them finds the book Capital by Karl Marx. Miss Lena explains that capital means money. In a moment of boredom, the kids put their homework in the Smart-O-Wave, and miraculously the oven completes the homework. So they decide to put Marx’s Capital in the oven, expecting money to come out, but instead Karl Marx comes out. He tells the children that he never really made any money, and that if they want money, they should call Adam Smith. Thus, Adam Smith comes along, and he and Marx start to debate, and later to fight. The two philosophers call in reinforcements, which soon becomes an ideological screwball comedy.

posted by Kulpims T'dna (kulpims) 1 year 5 months 2 weeks ago • 1,025 views • 5:01