Capital’s Victory March
Capital’s Victory March | edited photo printed on Epson Enhanced Matte on MDF | 50 x 70cm | 2024 | € 750
Image: facade relief Beurs van Berlage (trade building), Amsterdam, The Traffic Lambertus Zijl, 1903
The quatrain on the facade relief is very optimistic in tone. I replaced it with this text by Rosa Luxemburg from 1915, which is more relevant than ever:
'The relentless advance of capitalism led to its own eventual downfall, establishing global capitalist dominion, to be succeeded only by socialist global revolution.'
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In 1904, Rosa Luxemburg took part in the Second International, a congress for socialist parties, which was held at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She also had meetings at De Burcht during that time. De Burcht is a trade union building (built in 1900) of the Algemeene Nederlandsche Diamantbewerkersbond (General Dutch Diamond Workers Union) and was designed by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage.
During her eight-day stay, she undoubtedly also saw the brand-new Beurs van Berlage (1903). It was remarkable that the socialist Berlage was commissioned to build a stock exchange building, as he believed that stock exchange trading was not long-lived. Therefore, he designed a building that, in the future, after the triumph of socialism, could serve as a grand community centre, a 'people's palace'. Moreover, as a Gesamtkunstwerk, it was supposed to stimulate people's spiritual development. His friend and kindred spirit, Albert Verwey, was commissioned to think of wall decorations, sculptures, and reliefs that would create an organic whole with the architectural design.
The "The Traffic" relief demonstrates how international trade, symbolized by boats, goods, and pack animals from all over the world - such as horses, bulls, and camels - encourages friendly relationships between different peoples, including the Chinese, the Arab, and the Westerners. This is seen as a step towards a united Europe and eventually a united world that is fair and equal. In the quatrain below the relief, Verwey articulates this ideal as follows:
(translated from Dutch)
The nature will soon become one: the peoples are like groups
Of the one bond that controls all her globe.
By land, by sea, strives train, strives fleet to the utmost
To the changing goal to which they call each other.
I replaced this quatrain with a text by Rosa Luxemburg from 1915 :
'The relentless advance of capitalism led to its own eventual downfall, establishing global capitalist dominion, to be succeeded only by socialist global revolution.'
She keenly foresaw the repercussions of capitalism. Her vision is still distant, with the relentless advance of capitalism more relevant than ever.