Anna Scalfi Eghenter

In a pamphlet, Karl Liebknecht, one of the founders of the revolutionary socialist Spartacus group (later the Spartacus League), called on workers to gather on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz on May 1, 1916. He delivered a stern rebuke to the German military machine. Decrying the abuses of martial law, he urged the people to join forces against the real enemy: an imperialist government that sustains itself through violence. He was arrested and on June 28, 1916, Liebknecht faced charges of high treason for his actions. His trial took place within the rooms of this very courthouse, but due to his extreme popularity, the proceedings were closed to the public. Mocking the cowardice of his accusers, Liebknecht reportedly denounced the trial as “comedy.”

Anna Scalfi Eghenter resurrects this history with Die Komödie! Spanning multiple rooms, the installation updates Liebknecht’s pleas for workers to unite. In this case, however, the artist identifies the modern financial market as the common battleground, imploring consumers to rise up against the financial infrastructures that dictate cycles of exploitation, consumption, and waste.

Viewers must first pass through a storm of reprints of Liebknecht’s pamphlets before moving through various environments related to his historical trial and Eghenter’s contemporary consumerist restaging. In the final room, holes in the floor allow access to further audio and visual material on Liebknecht. This sense of the building revealing the secrets of the trial carries over into a final intervention: a red neon reading “COMUNISTA,” which can be seen through the windows. This gesture effectively reverses the situation in which the politician could be glimpsed by his supporters locked outside the courthouse.

Text: Kate Sutton