Questions (After Brecht)

© Karen Knorr - Who built the seven gates of Thebes? © Karen Knorr - In the books you will read the name of kings. © Karen Knorr - Was it the kings who dragged the rocks into place? View all images ↓
View all images ↓
Report issue

From a series of 24 images taken between 2017-2018 at the rebuilding site of La Samaritaine by Japanese Sanaa architects with captions taken from Questions of a Worker who Reads (Brecht 1935) .

These photographs record and document a labour in progress, yet the construction workers have exited and the building is built as if by magic. The actual physical labour is here embedded in a process of reification which creates an effect so well described by Guy Debord in Society of the Spectacle, 1967: ‘The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.’ The images transformed by solarised colour evoke the retail shops and designer goods valued over and beyond material labour. Brecht’s poem reminds us how history enhances the reputations of kings and leaders to the detriment of ordinary people and workers.

© Karen Knorr - Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
i

Who built the seven gates of Thebes?

© Karen Knorr - In the books you will read the name of kings.
i

In the books you will read the name of kings.

© Karen Knorr - Was it the kings who dragged the rocks into place?
i

Was it the kings who dragged the rocks into place?

© Karen Knorr - And Babylon, so often destroyed who rebuilt it so many times?
i

And Babylon, so often destroyed who rebuilt it so many times?

© Karen Knorr - In which of the houses of gold gleaming Lima did the construction workers live ? 
i

In which of the houses of gold gleaming Lima did the construction workers live ? 

© Karen Knorr - Where on that evening when the Chinese Wall was finished where did the masons go?
i

Where on that evening when the Chinese Wall was finished where did the masons go?

© Karen Knorr - The great city of Rome is full of triumphal arches. Who set them up ?
i

The great city of Rome is full of triumphal arches. Who set them up ?

© Karen Knorr - Young Alexander conquered India
i

Young Alexander conquered India

© Karen Knorr - Was he alone?
i

Was he alone?

© Karen Knorr - Who else prevailed?
i

Who else prevailed?

© Karen Knorr - Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. Did no one else weep ?  
i

Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. Did no one else weep ?  

© Karen Knorr - Frederick the Second was victorious in the Seven Years’ War.
i

Frederick the Second was victorious in the Seven Years’ War.

© Karen Knorr - Caesar defeated the Gauls .
i

Caesar defeated the Gauls .

© Karen Knorr - Did he not have so much as a cook with him?
i

Did he not have so much as a cook with him?

© Karen Knorr - Who cooked the victory banquet?
i

Who cooked the victory banquet?

© Karen Knorr - Who paid the bills?
i

Who paid the bills?

© Karen Knorr - Every ten years a great man .
i

Every ten years a great man .

© Karen Knorr - So many reports,so many questions
i

So many reports,so many questions