Two Centuries of Karl Marx: From Monument to Commodity

Two hundred years after his birth, Karl Marx remains one of history’s most influential thinkers. As the intellectual and spiritual father of, among others, the former Soviet Union, East Germany, the People’s Republic of China, and Cuba, his face and name became an integral part of the everyday lives of hundreds of millions. During the second half of the twentieth century, one could expect to stumble upon a Marx bust all over the world.

By the turn of the millennium, when the vast majority of communist nations had given way to capitalism, thousands of these monuments were destroyed, vandalized, or sold. So, what remains of Karl Marx today? Which monuments are still around, even if completely reinterpreted or appropriated? How is Marx represented in popular culture—films, comics, merchandise, street art, social media—in East and West nowadays? What narratives does he support, and what perspectives does he convey? Finally, how do these discussions relate to current questions regarding monuments and popular culture in the United States?

These and other questions will be addressed in a panel discussion at the Wende Museum in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. Join us as we think through the seemingly never-ending story of the public circulation of Karl Marx.

Speakers

Sina Rahmani is a writer, scholar, and translator based in Los Angeles. He completed his PhD in comparative literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work has been published in Iranian Studies, boundary 2, Public Books, and Radical History Review.

Choi Chatterjee teaches in the history program at California State University, Los Angeles. She is the author of Celebrating Women: The International Women’s Day in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1910–1939, and, with Lisa Kirschenbaum and Deborah Fields, Russia in the Long Twentieth Century: Contested Voices, Memories, and Perspectives.

Farrah Karapetian is an artist based in California. Her methods incorporate sculptural and performative means of achieving imagery that refigures the medium of photography around bodily experience. Her work is in public collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.

Moderated by Joes Segal, Chief Curator and Director of Programming, Wende Museum