Marx

A mass-produced plastic bag covered with 24-carat gold leaf and bearing the title Marx – without doubt, Baptiste Debombourg’s piece for the Urban Art Biennale 2024 has a sarcastic, provocative edge. Yet for the Parisian artist, Marx – which he created together with David Marin – is first and foremost a satire on the exaggerations and exaltations of capitalism, which turns cheap, mass-produced goods into extremely desirable cult objects. Made from the “black gold” of crude oil, plastic is convenient for producers and consumers alike. And, despite being harmful to the environment, it continues to play a key role in today’s consumer society. Yet aren’t such a lifestyle and economy simply a luxury with destructive consequences? And will the time come when plastic becomes so rare that it will be prized like a precious relic in the showcase of a museum? Presenting Marx within the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte also unleashes a long chain of associations. After all, didn’t the Röchling family of ironworkers once turn to plastics as a new field of business following their retreat from coal and steel? And haven’t, in the past, major cultural and historical exhibitions at the World Heritage Site thematised the fascination with gold and the devotional significance attached to gold objects – by, for example, the Ancient Egyptians, the Celts and the Incas? The work is typical of Debombourg in as much as his art, which also includes grandiose, immersive works, is often based on everyday materials and objects.

Daniel Bauer