Baby Marx September 20, 2011

The Walker presents the latest phase and first US exhibition of 'Baby Marx,' an ongoing project by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes that looks at the potential for mass entertainment to operate as a radical educational tool. Originally conceived for television, 'Baby Marx' is set in a small town library where a group of precocious children have brought Karl Marx and Adam Smith back to life by zapping their influential books in a glitch-prone "Smart-O-Wave" microwave oven. The founders of communism and the free market confront each other and their legacies, haunted by the twin specters of Joseph Stalin and Bernie Madoff, as well as the latest global economic crisis. Featuring the intricate set pieces and handmade puppets used for a trailer shot in Japan and a pilot episode filmed in Mexico City, the exhibition is an investigation of the entire 'Baby Marx' project to date.