Andrei Molodkin
Immigrant Blood

Andrei Molodkin's work Marianne 2013 examines the ongoing corruption imbued in social, political and religious constructs. It features a direct re-appropriation of Marianne, the celebrated icon of the French Republic and the symbol of the country’s democratic values. The sculpture simulates the configuration of the body through a system of tubes connected to a series of medical pumps, which are regulated by industrial compressors.

The bust of Marianne is an impression made from an authentic sculpture exhibited in a famous State Institution. Asylum seekers were asked to donate their blood to fill the sculpture.

For the duration of the exhibition, a qualified nurse was present on site to take donations of blood. The blood is pumped directly through the entire body of the work and retained in adjacent pharmaceutical fridges, reminding both audience and participants that while capital continuously circulates internationally without impediment, the working class cannot move as freely.