Two Manifestos: One in Print, One Out of Print is a proposal for a double sided banner to be placed in an environment such as a passageway or a room with multiple entrances. On one side marks the date 21 February, 1848 -- the publication date of the Communist Manifesto. The other side marks the date 19 July, 1848 -- the date of the first suffragist convention and women's rights declaration in the USA (and among the first in the world). The space the banner is installed in should be accessible from both sides so that the installation does not privilege either side, instead which date a viewer sees first depends on which direction s/he is coming from. Nearby is a text panel, citing the origins of the two dates. Ideally the banner should also be available as a double-sided poster to be taken away for free. In its poster form whther mounted on a wall or lieing on a table, one side is always up while one side is always down. The owner must choose which date to display and which one to conceal.

In 1998, on the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, I was amazed at how few people knew about the other manifesto written that same year, a manifesto aimed at the political and economic emancipation of 50% of humanity. Amid the commerative reprints, the exhibitions, the panels and discussions on the historical impact of one manifesto, there was a deafening silence about the other one...