Dragon
Production: Eventstructure Research Group, Amsterdam
This inflatable dragon was commissioned by William Klein for his 1969 satirical film comedy Mr. Freedom. The dragon was located in a disused metro station in Paris and meant to embody a Maoist ‘Red China Man’. Engaging in agitated conversation with the film’s crass superhero, Mr. Freedom, the dragon’s body shook about and smoke blew out of its nostrils. When the film premiered at the Avignon Festival in France, Marxist-Leninist groups criticized this political caricature.
This inflatable dragon was presented thereafter in a number of playful urban interventions, and some where the public was invited to carry it in procession through the streets.