Marx Now

Events revisiting Marx for the contemporary era

The Goethe-Institut is commemorating Marx’s 200th birthday with the series Marx Now. Holding events across North America, the Goethe-Institut seeks to revisit Marxism in the light of contemporary discussions.

In addition to an online portal at goethe.de/usa/marxnow, all of the Goethe-Institut locations in North America are taking part with unique events on the topic of Marx. Here in DC, the Goethe-Institut Washington will be hosting a variety of interactive experiences, exciting films, and innovative performances.
 
The main event of the Marx Now series in DC is Dictionary of Marx, a theatrical happening on Marx’s birthday, Saturday, May 5th, hosted by Capital Fringe and curated by director John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies. In this multimedia performance, a dozen artists, academics, actors, and authors respond to a selected lexicon of word from Marxist texts.
 
As part of the film series CINEMARX, the Goethe-Institut will be showcasing recent movies that comment on Marx and his economic theories in addition to historic short films from East Germany. As part of the series, AFI Silver Theatre will also screen the film The Young Karl Marx from the director Raoul Peck on Tuesday, May 1.
 
Throughout the month of May, the Goethe Gallery will become an interactive space for direct encounters with Marx’s writings in the exhibition Marx in the Study. Visitors are encouraged to read, remix, and react to Marxist theories. During the course of this exhibition, the Goethe-Institut will also host an All-Day Alexander Kluge Marathon on Saturday, May 19, showing the entirety of Kluge’s 9.5-hour-long film News from Ideological Antiquity.