In late 1986 I obstinately founded, on the rubble of what had once been a rundown urban anarchists tavern, the bar, which today is known as Marx. During the winter of 87 along with 2 more members, we ventured into the city streets in search of the building materials with which we would resurrect and reincarnate the place. In March of the same year, with work still half finished, we inaugurated with the idea that we would make enough cash to finish the task we had begun.
The following year I founded the Associació d’Artistes Suburbans with the aim of giving voice, and more importantly space, to artistic activities which at that time was a rare occurrence in the city of Barcelona.
With Marx’s closed door policy, “clients” became members each with their own key to the bar so as to come and go as they pleased.
In 1990 I began Christmarx Tapes compilations, which continued, every “Christmarx” without fail, for the next 13 years. The tapes, of course recoded on cassettes, consisted of a selection of the music which the regulars had been subjected to over the course of the year.
As of 2000 a small «branch» of Hazard Records (Barcelona’s only open access record label under Creative Commons license) has had is CD’s available for sale or hanging from meat hooks (head sets over the bar) for the publics listening pleasure.
With the idea in mind that the Christmarx Tapes anthology was a small sample of what Marx meant to its regulars, I set about recording what the regulars meant to Marx. During the celebrations of our 15th anniversary in 2001, I began to record the conversations of the regulars which after many weeks were then sent to various musicians (also regulars) including Jakob Draminsky, Anton Ignorant, Horvath, Juan Crek, Mark Cunningham, Silvia Mestres , Anki Toner, DR, etc … The intention was to create a compilation which would then result in the 23 tracks contained in the cd Voxology released by Hazard Records in 2001. A CD, which exemplifies the very essence of marx bar.
During the following years the successive screenings of short films, video art, poetry or sporadic performances have given way to the current permanent program of mICROcONCERTs concerts, a show case of experimental avant-garde performers and audiovisual artists.
Over the years, and not for want of local authorities intents to shut Marx down, one of Barcelona’s oldest surviving alternative venues, Marx Bar closes definitively and voluntarily at the end of 2018.
Cheers.
xmarx
Hippies Taking No Man’s Land (EP) by 
love & hate - Lloc permanent sobre soroll i altres delícies 