Marxizm de Sad 1998

Curator: Arsen Savadov's "Marxizm de Sad", a photograph from 1998, presents a very intriguing scene. Editor: Yes, it's quite surreal! People wearing mushroom caps emerge from a dense thicket of greenery. It feels both playful and unsettling. What strikes you about it? Curator: Considering this was made in 1998, not long after Ukraine gained its independence, I find it pertinent to dissect its socio-political context through a materialist lens. The mushrooms are artificial and made from manufactured materials; where did he source the fabric and what does that imply in the emerging capitalist landscape of Ukraine at the time? Editor: That’s a fascinating point. So you’re thinking about the resources available to Savadov and the implications of his material choices? Curator: Exactly. How were those mushroom caps constructed, what sort of labor went into that, and what existing industries in post-Soviet Ukraine might have facilitated that production? Moreover, why stage it as a photograph, readily and widely reproduced, instead of another medium? The "de Sad" reference is clear enough given the figures' near nudity and strange, submissive posture, but do the artificial mushrooms hint at the artificiality of constructed ideologies in this time, the death of previous certainties? Editor: It's compelling how you're weaving together the literal materials with broader political themes. I hadn't considered the role photography's reproducibility played! Curator: It also forces us to ask: what and who are these mushroom people intended *for*? Were they produced for a Ukrainian, post-Soviet, art consumer base or an international one? Answering this will let us further investigate what materials made it in the work. Editor: Seeing the work this way, I'm struck by how much more there is than just the initial surreal image. Considering the materials and how the work was made helps open it up to reveal so much more. Curator: Indeed. By analyzing the labor and material production, we reveal how this seemingly fantastical photograph is deeply embedded in its historical and economic moment.