The presentation of BIOGRAPHIE DES SUSPECTS initiates a reading room at Bulegoa z/b that aims to bind together historical events with a shared present. Re-reading the Communist Manifesto, Ian Clewe and Leon Filter (DAI, 2018) pose the questions: where can we find ourselves within this revolutionary effort? And how do we make new contributions under current conditions? ~ The presentatation on the 21 th of July, /2022 follows Ian and Leon's research period as "artists in residency" at Bulegoa z/b.
1848, shortly after finishing the Communist Manifesto, Karl and Jenny Marx are imprisoned in Brussels, accused of arming the workers. In fear of the revolution, a drama unfurls, leading to their expulsion from Belgium. The surveillance records produced in the lead-up to these events picture the infrastructure around the production of the Manifesto and incite us to lay out the conditions that made its production possible.
Working through historical documents such as police surveillance reports, diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, Ian Clewe and Leon Filter take these historical narratives and counter-narratives as their point of departure to propose re-reading the Communist Manifesto towards its social and material production conditions.
