Jože Barši: Reading Capital | Proletarians of all Countries Unite!

Object on pedestal with text on the wall,  2007 – 2008

In the fall of 2007 I joined a group of political science students who got together once a week for reading sessions of Marx’s Capital (Vol. 1) at the Workers-Punks University in Ljubljana. After political changes in Slovenia and ex-Yugoslavia in the beginning of 1990s Marx’s theory almost vanished from the universities, and at the same time the Slovenian translation of his Capital is almost impossible to find anywhere. Although, because of the world financial crisis, reading Capital is becoming more popular, I do not believe in solving this crisis through a work written in 19th century. But its rereading, I think, is recommendable; with it we must redefine or reinvent Capital. To read Marx not so much as a thinker, rather as someone who demands his theory becomes socially effective.

Jože Barši: Mladen Dolar, Heglova Fenomenologija duha 1, p. 34–35, 36–37

Photographs of text, 2010–2013

Photo: Janez Marolt; Ana Mizerit, Dejan Habicht (Moderna galerija)

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Jože Barši graduated from the Faculty of Architecture under the mentorship of Prof. Edvard Ravnikar and the Faculty of Fine Arts, where he studied sculpture. His diverse work encompasses everything from site‑specific works, such as Public Toilet (1999) and House (2000), to practices that present radio broadcasts as spaces for exhibitions, public lectures and conceptual works, such as Conversations and Empty Lecture. He has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, seminars and conferences: he represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennial in 1997 and was invited to the 4th International Istanbul Biennial by the curator René Block in 1995. Furthermore, he has received the Zlata ptica Award for visual arts in 2010 and the Jakopič Award in 2014 and has been lecturing at the Department for Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design since 1988.

Artist's web page: jozebarsi.blogspot.si