The Permanent Revolution

The Permanent Revolution, an original play by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes presented at Museo Jumex, explores the tensions between socialism and capitalism.

As a new departure from the Pedro Reyes’ Baby Marx series, which explored the contradictions that occur between socialism and capitalism through films and small sketches involving marionettes of characters such as Vladimir Lenin, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Karl Marx, Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, The Permanent Revolution gathers these celebrated thinkers for the first time in Mexico to discuss their revolutionary ideas and disproportionate ambitions through an hour long live act.

This new script, commissioned by Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, sets the play in present time and flirts with important and urgent subjects such as ideological radicalism, government transparency and the controlled use of information. Additionally, six new characters will be joining the original cast: Leon Trotsky, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Steve Jobs and Julian Assange.

The plot includes political intrigue, romance, philosophy, conceptual art, debauchery, technology, espionage and explosions, addresses philosophical questions and political matters that have a direct impact on our lives, making the story that much more explosive. Here, the real, the absurd, and the ironic are chock-a-block.

With more than forty performances during four weeks, The Permanent Revolution is presented at Museo Jumex along with an exhibition of artworks related to this project.