Marcello Mercado — Index – Generator (2004)

24 min | Color, Stereo

Performance

In 2004, I carried out Index – Generator inside the exposed foundation pit of the former Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne. The building had been demolished, leaving an open excavation several meters below ground level. Sitting at a table at the bottom of the pit, I read aloud the complete index of Volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital.

As I read, I translated the index live into an invented phonetic system—one without a dictionary or syntax that the audience could decipher. Names, economic concepts, historical sites, and bibliographic references were converted into an unrecognizable stream of sounds.

The surroundings passively entered the performance: pedestrians crossing the square above, noise from a nearby left-wing rally, and, directly facing the pit, a real-estate agency named Engels.

Instead of the main body of Capital, the work focuses entirely on its index—the administrative map designed to direct readers elsewhere. By reading it sequentially in an unreadable language, the tool breaks down: the references persist, but their destinations vanish.

Inside the debris of a demolished institution, an instrument built for navigating information is stripped of utility, leaving only twenty-four minutes of spoken acoustics.