Publication
2018

The artist Rainer Ganahl has been creatively adapting the writings of Karl Marx to his own work since the 1990s. The German philosopher’s ideas have galvanized projects such as Ganahl’s irreverent fashion show Commes des Marxists, a series of obscene food sculptures inspired by the “credit crunch” of 2008, and a Karl Marx fire extinguisher, which allows the thinker’s wisdom to be sprayed onto any conflict. There has never been a more fitting time, however, for the release of this book, which appears on the 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis, and 200 years after Marx’s birth. In more than 700 pages, Manhattan Marxism assembles essays, photos, and other documentation from dozens of Ganahl’s Marx-themed projects from the past decade.