Baby Marx at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is an installation of Pedro Reyes’s ongoing project that examines the possibility of using mass entertainment as an educational tool.

Running until 27 November 2011, the underlying theme of Baby Marx is the examination of socialism and capitalism as two opposing economic systems.

Baby Marx was originally conceived as a television show that features puppets of famous historical figures like Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Che Guevera, Joseph Stalin, Milton Friedman and even Bernie Madoff. The story is set in the library of a small town where a group of children put the writings of these influential figures into a microwave-like device to bring them all to life.

With detailed sets and handmade puppets, the Baby Marx installation is an overview of the project to date. Perhaps more importantly, Baby Marx asks questions about how people relate to various philosophies that get filtered down the years but are open to contradicting interpretations.