An 8-channel video installation by Oliver Ressler

“What is democracy?” is not one question, but is actually two questions. On the one hand, the question relates to conditions of the current, parliamentary representative democracies that are scrutinized critically in this project. On the other hand, the question traces different approaches to what a more democratic system might look like and which organizational forms it could take.

The project asked “What is democracy?” to numerous activists and political analysts in 18 cities around the world, in Amsterdam, Berkeley, Berlin, Bern, Budapest, Copenhagen, London, Melbourne, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rostock, San Francisco, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki and Warsaw.
The interviews have been recorded on video since January 2007. Even though all interviewees were asked the same question, the result was a multiplicity of different perspectives and viewpoints from people living in states that are usually labeled “democracies”.

This pool of interviews builds the basis for eight videos, which are presented in an 8-channel video installation. This installation (re)presents a kind of global analysis about the deep political crises of the Western democratic model. In one video, Adam Ostolski (Warsaw) explains that originally “the modern idea of democracy was connected to the notion of progress” and parliamentary states “had some tendency to become more and more democratic by including new types of political actors, such as workers and women. […] But since the 1980s, since the neoliberal trend in politics and economy we have a regression of democracy.” Lize Mogel (New York) notes that situation changed in such a way, that when you think about representative democracy today “you are not necessarily talking about individuals being represented, but more capital being represented.” Nikos Panagos (Thessaloniki) even argues that “representation and democracy are incompatible terms. Therefore, under no circumstances could the present system be called a democracy. It is just a sophisticated form of oligarchy.” Lisa Gray-Garcia (San Francisco) seems to agree, when she labels representative democracy a “fake-democracy”. While some subjects in the videos elaborate their ideas of direct democracy or decision-making processes of indigenous communities, David McNeill (Sydney) raises the issue of whether it makes sense “to continue contesting for the right to own and define the term democracy” or whether “it has been so corrupted and polluted by the conservatives that claimed ownership of it, that it is better to be surrendered.”

The 8-channel video installation discusses the contested notion of “democracy”, which is misused for the maintenance of order by those in power, while at the same time “democracy” still represents an ideal hundreds of million people in the South desperately want to achieve. Today it seems almost impossible to be against “democracy”, even though it is getting emptier and emptier. A potential strategy could try to fill what is called “democracy” with new meaning. In this sense, the installation presents a multi-layered discourse on democracy, which expresses a broad field of opinions that go beyond the borders of nation-states and continents.

The eight videos have the following titles: “Rethinking representation” (16 min.), “Politics of exclusions” (23 min.), “Secrecy instead of democratic transparency” (13 min.), “New democracies?” (23 min.), “Is representative democracy a democracy?” (22 min.), “Direct democracy” (22 min.), “Reclaiming Indigenous politics” (18 min.) and “Should we consign the Western democracy model to the ash heap of history?” (13 min.)

The 8-channel video installation was/will be realized within the following exhibitions:

“nochnichtmehr – Handeln im unmarkierten Raum“, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Berlin (D), 09.09. – 10.10.09
“The Spectacle of the Everyday”, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (F), 16.09.09 – 03.01.10
“What Is Democracy?”, Siz Gallery, Rijeka (HR), 29.09. – 18.10.09 (solo-exhibition)
“What Is Democracy?”, Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum – ACAF, Alexandria (ET), 12.03. – 01.04.10 (solo-exhibition)

Concept, interviews, camera and sound recording: Oliver Ressler
Interviewees: Kuan-Hsing Chen, Noortje Marres, Lin Chalozin Dovrat, Thanasis Triaridis, Tone Olaf Nielsen, Jo van der Spek, Cheikh Papa Sakho, Wolf Dieter Narr, Tiny a.k.a. Lisa Gray-Garcia, Joanna Erbel, Yvonne Riano, Sami Bukhari, Trevor Paglen, Tadeusz Kowalik, Adam Ostolski, Boris Kagarlitsky, Michal Kozlowski, Ilaria Vanni, Lize Mogel, Rick Ayers, Janos Kiss, Nikos Panagos, Macha Kurzina, Clare Saunders, Ewa Majewska, Gabor Csillag, Zachary Running Wolf, Jenny Munroe, Jorge Joquera, Miranda Bergman, Patrick Watkins, Abram Mahmoadi, Anja Peter, Tracey Wheatley, Ilya Eric Lee, Berenice Hernández, David McNeill
2nd camera (video 8): Volkmar Geiblinger
Video editing and production: Oliver Ressler
Image editing and subtitles: David Grohe
Animation: Zanny Begg
Composition and sound editing: Rudi Gottsberger
Footage: Sierpien 80 (© Telewizja Polska S.A.)
Special thanks to Louisa Avgita, Kai Bauer, Zanny Begg, Karen Bennett, Christine Boehler, Paul Chatterton, Amy Cheng, Eyal Danon, Hilla Dayan, Miklos Erhardt, Takis Fotopoulos, Frédérique Gautier, Peter Grabher, Hou Hanru, Manray Hsu, Jens Kastner, Caroline Lensing-Hebben, Geert Lovink, Margarethe Makovec, Davor Miskovic, Nikos Panagos, Ted Purves, Gerald Raunig, Natalia Romik, Walter Seidl, Katharina Schlieben, Gregory Sholette, Kuba Szreder, Dmitry Vilensky and Tom Waibel.
Translation for English subtitles: Harold Otto
Translation for German subtitles: Otmar Lichtenwörther
Translation for French subtitles: Lucile Gourraud-Beyron
Grants: ERSTE Foundation, Kulturamt der Steiermärkischen Landesregierung, Kulturamt Stadt Graz, Otto-Mauer-Fonds, Biennale de Lyon 2009

The exhibition project “For A Completely Different Climate” deals with an emerging social movement that questions and selectively fights the response (or non-response) of states and corporations to climate change. This leftist movement has the potential to mobilize especially in Britain, where in August 2008 a Climate Camp was organized to close the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station east of London. Although the Kingsnorth station will be shut down, the energy corporation E.ON plans to build, at the same location, a new coal-fired power station that will assure profits for the next few decades. This project completely conflicts with the necessary goal of reducing CO2 emissions. Preventing a new coal-fired powerplant in Kingsnorth is of great symbolic value, since a successful resistance could mean the end of other planned projects for coal-fired powerplants elsewhere in Britain.

The centre of the exhibition “For A Completely Different Climate” is a 3-channel slide installation, based on 96 photos taken in the Climate Camp and at the demonstrations and blockades of Kingsnorth. These photos are combined with short texts and audio recordings of the demonstrations and workshops. In a presentation lasting 16 minutes, three connected projections will be shown on an 18-metre-long wall of the gallery. The exhibition also includes three light boxes combining photos with police search protocols and information sheets that identify state repression.

“For A Completely Different Climate” is my third project focusing on climate-change concerns. The “100 Years of Greenhouse Effect” was done in 1996 (Salzburger Kunstverein) and followed in 2000 by “Sustainable Propaganda” that used a series of exhibitions to comment on the hegemonic discourse of “sustainable development” (exhibitions included Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin). Ever since Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006), that is based on his slide shows, the debate about global warming has been part of the mainstream. Gore believes that trading emissions rights and using clean and efficient technologies can prevent global warming. However, “For A Completely Different Climate” uses the medium of a slide show to focus, above all, on resistance to the existing system and provides space for people who in contradiction to Gore believe that market-compatible approaches such as emissions trading is not about the protection of the climate, but instead only about ensuring continued capitalist growth. As noted in the installation’s audio recordings, CO2 emissions continue to rise years after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change could therefore only be confronted through a radical transformation of society that would effectively challenge the existing distribution of wealth and power-relationships that are guaranteed by the military.

• “For A Completely Different Climate”, December 15, 2008 till January 30, 2009, Galleria Artra, Milan, Italy, curated by Marco Scotini

• Concept, photos, audio-recording, editing and production: Oliver Ressler
• Editing assistant: David Grohe
• Lightbox photos on the Great Rebel Raft Regatta: Amy Scaife, Mike Russell
• Special thanks to: Climate Camp, Tadzio Mueller, Marco Scotini, Marcella Stefanoni
• Supported by Galleria Artra

Although the real stakes behind the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan had to do primarily with geo-strategic interests and control of the oil deposits, the preferred official line to legitimize the wars in the eyes of the public spoke of their being waged to bring “democracy” to those countries. This political discourse was maintained as long as victory still seemed feasible to the armed forces of the United States and its allies. In the meantime, however, the emphasis has shifted more towards achieving “stability” in Iraq and “peace” in Afghanistan.

At the start of the military campaign, the US jet fighters did not drop only bombs: they also showered down leaflets containing messages intended for the population. These called upon the enemy soldiers to desert, warned civilians to keep at a distance from military targets, defined the pattern of behavior in case of contact with the invaders, or else relayed a general political message explaining the alleged reasons and goals of the military attack.

The “Fly Democracy” installation represents a re-enactment of this shower of message-bearing flyers, but symbolically transfers the drop’s target point to the territory of the United States. Specially drawn up for the “Fly Democracy” piece, ten flyers set forth current political arguments on behalf of direct or participatory forms of democracy, all of which stand in contradiction to the model of formal democracy that – embedded in a neo-liberal, capitalistic State – is imposed by the United States. The stance that “Fly Democracy” adopts contrasts with that model by interpreting the term “democracy” more in its original sense, as it was understood in Ancient Greece. At that time, it meant – at least for full age male citizens – more direct involvement in the decision-making processes than what exists in today’s representative democracies. “Pseudo-democracies” is how the theorist Paul Cockshott would label the latter, as measured against the word’s original meaning.

The installation consists of a five-minute video loop showing the flyers on their downward trip from a shining blue sky to the ground, where they are read by people who pick them up. The original English-language flyers are strewn on the floor in front of the video screen, together with the exhibition-destined flyers in German, French or Romanian. Visitors are welcome to pick any of the flyers up, read them and take them home.

• Concept, Camera, Film Editing, Design, Production: Oliver Ressler
• Image Editing and Sound: Rudi Gottsberger
• Production assistants: Meghan Hartman, Brandon Ives, Gaby Ruzek

The installation has been produced by ACC Galerie, Weimar (D); Fri-Art – Centre d’Art Contemporain, Fribourg (CH); Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (D); 2. International Photo Festival Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg 2007 (D); and <rotor>, Graz (A) in 2007.

Download video excerpt

Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler, 81 min.

In their second film regarding political and social change in Venezuela, after “” (67 min., 2004), Azzellini and Ressler focus on the industrial sector in “5 Factories–Worker Control in Venezuela“. The changes in Venezuela’s productive sphere are demonstrated with five large companies in various regions: a textile company, aluminum works, a tomato factory, a cocoa factory, and a paper factory. In all, the workers are struggling for different forms of co- or self-management supported by credits from the government. “The assembly is basically governing the company”, says Rigoberto López from the textile factory “Textileros del Táchira” in front of steaming tubs. And coning machine operator Carmen Ortiz summarizes the experience as follows: “Working collectively is much better than working for another–working for another is like being a slave to that other”.

The protagonists portrayed at the five production locations present insights into ways of alternative organizing and models of workers’ control. Mechanisms and difficulties of self-organization are explained as well as the production processes. The portrayal of machine processes could be seen as a metaphor for the dream machine of the “Bolivarian process”, and the hopes and desires it inspires among the workers. The situation in the five factories varies, but they share the common search for better models of production and life. This not only means concrete improvements for the workers. Aury Arocha, laboratory analyst at the ketchup factory “Tomates Guárico”, emphasizes that the difference between “social production companies” (EPS) and capitalist corporations is that the EPS “work for the community and society”. Carlos Lanz, president of the second largest aluminum factory in Venezuela, Alcasa, coins the key question: “How does a company push toward socialism within a capitalist framework?”

The film ends with an extended sequence from a management meeting at Alcasa, a company with 2.700 workers, with discussions about co-management and the changes of production relations they aspire towards.

The film is originally in Spanish and available with German or English subtitles.

The English version “5 Factories–Worker Control in Venezuela” as an installation version with six video projections from March 26 to May 28, 2006 opened the MATRIX cycle “Now-Time Venezuela: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process” at the Berkeley Art Museum (U.S.A.), organized by Chris Gilbert.

• Concept, interviews, film editing, production: Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler
• Camera: Volkmar Geiblinger
• Production Assistant in Venezuela: Eduardo Daza
• Image editing and titles: Markus Koessl
• Sound Editor: Rudi Gottsberger
• Interviewees: José Luis Acosta, Luis Alfonso, Luis Alvarez, Aury Arocha, Zulay Boyer, Carolina Chacón, Eleuterio Córdova, Hugo Favero, Manrique Gonzales, Dulfo Guerrero, Rowan Jiménez, Carlos Lanz, Marivit Lopez, Rigoberto López, Willys Lugo, Gonzalo Maestre, Luis Mata Castillo, Domingo Meléndez, Edith Mendoza, José Gregorio Moy, Carmen Ortíz, Alexander Patiño, Santos Pérez, Juana Ruíz, Elio Sayago, José del Carmen Tapias, Leslie E. Turmero

After the loss of a counter-model for capitalism – which socialism, in its real, existing form had presented until its collapse – alternative concepts for economic and social development face hard times at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the industrial nations, broadly discussed are only those “alternatives” that do not question the existing power relations of the capitalist system and representative democracies. Other socio-economic approaches are labeled utopian, devalued, and excluded from serious discussion, if even considered at all.

The thematic installation, “Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies,” focuses on diverse concepts and models for alternative economies and societies, which all share a rejection of the capitalist system of rule. An interview was carried out for each concept. Interview partners include economists, political scientists, authors, and historians. From these interviews, a video in English was produced. In the exhibition, these single-channel 20- to 37-minute videos are each shown on a separate monitor, thus forming the central element of the artistic installation.

The project presents alternative social and economic models such as “Inclusive Democracy” from Takis Fotopoulos (GB/GR), “Participatory Economy” from Michael Albert (U.S.A.) and “Anarchist Consensual Democracy” from Ralf Burnicki (D). Chaia Heller (U.S.A.) presents “Libertarian Municipalism”, Paul Cockshott (GB) “Towards a New Socialism”, Heinz Dieterich (MX) “The Socialism of the 21st Century”, Marge Piercy (U.S.A.) the feminist-anarchist utopias of her social fantasies, and the underground author p.m. (CH), the ideas of his concept “bolo’bolo.”

Other videos focus on certain principles that might be of importance when discussing alternative economics and societies: Nancy Folbre (U.S.A.) speaks about “Caring Labor,” Christoph Spehr (D) about “Free Cooperation”, Maria Mies (D) about the subsistence perspective and John Holloway (MX/IE) about his ideas of how to “Change the World Without Taking Power.”

As interesting historical models, Todor Kuljic (SCG), thematizes workers’ self-management in Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s, Salomé Moltó (E) talks about the workers’ collectives during the Spanish Civil War (1936–38), and Alain Dalotel (F) discusses the Paris Commune of 1871. One of the videos discusses the Zapatist Good Government Junta, a self-governing, direct democracy network, which is currently present in certain rural areas of Chiapas, Mexico.

Chosen from each of these 16 videos is one quotation significant for the alternative model that it presents. The quote is placed directly on the floor of the exhibition room as a several meter long text piece. This floor lettering, made from adhesive film, leads exhibition visitors directly to the corresponding videos and thereby provides a kind of orientation within this non-hierarchically arranged pool of videos. These videos offer stimulus and suggestions for contemplating social alternatives and possibilities for action.

The whole exhibition project started in Ljubljana in 2003 with five videos. Meanwhile, the installation has grown to include 16 videos with a total length of more than seven hours. The project is ongoing, further economic and social concepts might be added in the coming years.

The installation “Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies” was realized within the following exhibitions:

• Galerija Skuc, Ljubljana (SI), 30.10. – 23.11.03 (“Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies”)
• Espace Forde, Genève (CH), 06. – 19.12.03 (“There is no Alternative”)
• Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg (D), 08. – 16.01.04 (“Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies”)
• Transmediale.04, Berlin (D), 31.01. – 15.02.04 (“fly utopia!”)
• O.K – Center for Contemporary Art, Linz (A), 11.03. – 02.05.04 (“Open House”)
• Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (A), 16.06. – 24.07.04 (“permanent produktiv”)
• Itaucultural Institute, Sao Paulo (BR), 01.07. – 26.09.04 (“Emoção Art.ficial II – Divergências Tecnológicas”)
• Sorlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand (N), 06.07. – 15.08.04 (“Detox 04. Crossover Jam Culture”)
• Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk (PL), 03.09. – 03.10.04 (“Health and Safety”)
• Centro Cultural Conde Duque, MediaLabMadrid, Madrid (E), 30.09.04 – 31.10.04 (“Economía alternativa, sociedades alternativas”)
• Forum Stadtpark, Graz (A), Steirischer Herbst, 08.10. – 28.11.04 (“There Must Be an Alternative”)
• Main Trend Gallery, Taipei (RC), 21.01. – 26.02.05 (“Wayward Economy”)
• Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Mali Salon, Rijeka (HR), 04. – 12.03.05 (“Alternativne Ekonomije, Alternativna Drustva”)
• Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul (TR), 29.04. – 21.05.05 (“An Ideal Society Creates Itself”)
• kuda.org – New Media Center / Museum of Contemporary Art, Novi Sad (SCG), 24.05. – 01.06.05 (“Alternativne Ekonomije, Alternativna Drustva”)
• Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Salon, Belgrade (SCG), 04.06. – 10.06.05 (“Alternativne Ekonomije, Alternativna Drustva”)
• Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (D), 08.07. – 22.11.05 (“Critical Societies”)
• Miroquesada Garland Gallery, Lima (PE), 12.08. – 04.09.05 (“9th International Festival of Video/Arte/Electrónica”)
• Kunstihoone, Tallinn (EST) 07.01. – 14.02.06 (“Capital (It Fails Us Now)”)
• Second International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Seville (E), 26.10.2006 – 15.01.2007 (“The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society”)
• Stroom, The Hague (NL), 25.02. – 08.04.07 (“After Neurath: Like Sailors on the Open Sea“

“Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies” received initial support as a grant from republicart and the BKA section for the arts.

English transcriptions of the videos for “Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies”:

• Chaia Heller, Libertarian Municipalism
• Takis Fotopoulos, Inclusive Democracy
• Michael Albert, Participatory Economics
• Heinz Dieterich, The Socialism of the 21st Century
• Paul Cockshott, Towards a New Socialism
• p.m., bolo’bolo
• Marge Piercy, Utopian Feminist Visions
• Ralf Burnicki, Anarchist Consensual Democracy
• Maria Mies, The Subsistence Perspective
• Nancy Folbre, Caring Labor
• Christoph Spehr, Free Cooperation
• John Holloway, Change the World Without Taking Power
• The Zapatista Good Government
• Todor Kuljic, Yugoslavia‘s Workers Self-Management
• Salomé Moltó, Workers’ Collectives during the Spanish Revolution
• Alain Dalotel, The Paris Commune 1871

For video transcriptions in the languages Spanish, Portuguese and Serbian please check out republicart

Check out the online video “Inclusive Democracy” with Takis Fotopoulos

For more infos about this project by Oliver Ressler visit the project website http://www.ressler.at/democracy/

A City-Light series by Oliver Ressler in the urban space of Munich, within the framework of the Kunstverein München’s exhibition “Exchange & Transform”

At busy sites in Munich’s inner city, 175 x 119 cm posters will be presented as City Lights from 14 May to 10 June 2002. The repressive actions of both politics and police against the demonstration on the occasion of the 38th NATO security conference which took place from 1 – 3 February 2002 in Munich provides a starting point for the poster series. Munich’s chief mayor, Christian Ude (SPD), took an unverified claim from the German constitutional protection agency, that 3,000 “violence-prone demonstrators” were planning excessive acts of violence and a “de-glassing” of Munich’s inner city as cause to impose a three-day demonstration ban. The lifting of the Schengen agreement and the prohibition for demonstration participants to cross the border from neighboring countries accompanied this measure in order to avoid, according to Bavaria’s Minister of the Interior Günther Beckstein (CSU), “leftist, cross-border violence tourism.”

More than 3,500 police officers, special vehicles, and barricades were called in to execute the officially prescribed infringement of the constitutional right to free demonstration during the NATO security conference.

7,000 anti-war activists and opponents of economic globalization attempted – despite prohibitions, barriers, and police encirclements – to practice their right to demonstrate in Munich’s inner city. Of these, 792 were arrested although participation in a prohibited demonstration is actually tantamount to a disruption of public order (comparable to a traffic violation).

Through the construction of fictive threatening scenarios, people were hindered from practicing their democratic rights and the proudly claimed “Liberalitas Bavariae” (the Bavarian liberalness) of politics, police, secret service and media were trampled on.

The three poster subjects of the City-Light series bring together the available knowledge on location at the events around the NATO security conference with the fact that a month after the total demonstration ban by the SPD head mayor, his politics – and thereby also the restriction of democratic rights – was confirmed by a brilliant election victory. Therefore, in the work “This is what democracy looks like (Liberalitas Bavariae)” in the City-Light posters, the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD’s) election slogans, “Munich needs more red!” and “It is about Munich” are combined with events surrounding the demonstration ban. The poster subjects, presented at various sites throughout the inner city, create an open structure and do not allow for a clear designation of who is behind the posters. With two of the posters it is even possible that passers-by could believe Munich’s SPD to be the initiator, proud of suspending democratic rights. In this case this intervention into the “order of discourse,” as Foucault described that essential element of the exercise of power, would amount to a weakening of the position of the supposed authors, the SPD, at the level of symbol-politics. The third poster makes a clear statement: “The restriction of democratic rights has many abbreviations” is written next to the abbreviations: CSU, SPD, KVR, VGH and UDE.

This intervention to the urban space is connected in terms of content with the video “This is what democracy looks like!” (38 min, 2002) about a police encirclement on the occasion of the first anti-globalization demonstration in Austria. The video could likewise be seen in the framework of the exhibition project “Exchange & Transform” in the Kunstverein München from 26 April to 1 September 2002.

Poster texts:

• “It is about Munich”The constitutional right to free demonstration successfully suspended!
• Once again next year
• Bans on demonstrations – Bans on events – Police encirclements – Mass arrests – Restriction of democratic rights“Munich has more red!”
• Cordial thanks for your vote
• The restriction of democratic rights has many abbreviationsCSU, SPD, KVR, VGH, UDE

Banners, posters and installations by Oliver Ressler & David Thorne

“If only” is the frustrated utopian refrain of Oliver Ressler and David Thorne’s absurdly dysfunctional URL addresses collectively titled “Boom!”. Utilizing this ubiquitous textual format of the “new economy,” “Boom!” rehearses the defense mechanisms of the neoliberal imagination as it confronts its own internal crises. The acknowledged incompleteness implied by “if only” situates these texts somewhere between a guilty confession, a plea of desperation, and an ideological strategy session. The texts set for themselves the task of neutralizing the “problems” – the dislocated and potentially antagonistic groups engendered by the free market – that threaten the realization of the utopian ideal, implicitly embodied by the owners of capital. But Boom!’s utopian address deliberately fails to elicit from the viewer a positive identification with its purported message, having gone too far in specifying the contents of the universal “freedom” to which it aspires. This failure of identification thus displaces the locus of the “problem” from those constructed as the threatening “outside” of the capitalist utopia to the exclusionary, crisis-ridden grounds of that utopia itself.

Originally designed for use as banners in anticapitalist demonstrations, Ressler and Thorne’s texts reject the handmade, organic aesthetics of most conventional protest art. Instead, they share with earlier postmodern artists such as Barbara Kruger the appropriation of the graphic conventions of marketing to disrupt the smooth functioning of everyday forms of consumerist identification. But Ressler and Thorne’s texts also bear a specific historical relation to the URL format, reinvesting it with traces of social divisions linked to the digital economy, of which the dot-com address has been a key visual and textual component. In the wake of the speculation-driven Internet bubble, the phrase “dot-com” already appears as an artifact of a ruined utopia, testimony to the destructive boom-bust cycle inherent to deregulated markets. (Yates McKee, On Counterglobal Aesthetics; text from the catalogue: “Empire/State: Artists Engaging Globalization”, Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Study Program Exhibition, New York, 2002)

”terror.gov”

The piece ”terror.gov” was realized as an issue-specific intervention for a window installation at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles within the ongoing project ”Boom!”. ”terror.gov” focuses on a present moment in the USA that could be called a ”state of exception,” a moment in which a discourse of terror seeks to foreclose – or suspend – certain kinds of political articulation, space and thought. Materially, this state of exception takes the form of directives, policies, and legislation which grant broad powers to the executive and the judiciary, and to intelligence, law enforcement, and other security apparatuses. In another sense, the state of exception has the effect of making contestatory modes of political engagement extremely difficult, since the discourse of terror relies on a rhetoric of potentiality or possibility (the potential of the unknown or the unpredictable, the possibility of future terrorist acts) in order to justify repressive measures and reciprocal acts of terror. In the name of security, ”anything goes,” and opposition to such measures is considered a kind of treachery. ”terror.gov” suggests thinking toward a space of potentiality, or possibility, that is not always only the possibility of terror, from whatever source.

The url text of the piece reads (without spaces):

www. if only people would stay locked into the threat matrix and never stop to consider the fact that the scenario in which terror is met with terror on every front is dangerously and some might say deliriously circular then they would be immediately forthcoming with every penny necessary to sustain the burn rate for ongoing military and economic operations which secure a comfortable living for a select few and condemn everyone else to oblivion while still managing to convince them of the promise that such a comfortable life could one day be theirs even though they should simply be happy that at least there is more than enough terror to go around .gov

Versions of “Boom!” have been presented in exhibitions at CCA Glasgow (GB, 2005), Ottawa Art Gallery (CAN, 2005), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (NZ, 2005), Kunsthalle Wien, permanent installation at Karlsplatz, Vienna (2004), Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg (S, 2003), Gallery 825, Los Angeles (2003), Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program Exhibition, New York (2002), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA (2002), World-Information.Org, Amsterdam (NL, 2002), Kunst Raum Goethestrasse, Linz (A, 2002), Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (A, 2001 and 2004) and others.

“Boom!” banners were part of demonstrations against the World Economic Forum in New York, January 2002 and Salzburg, September 2002.

Inserts have been realized for the magazines Malmoe 07/2002, Afterimage 07/2002 and the “Tester” book (2004).

• Direct mailing in Styria at the EU-border (A)
• Exhibition in the Kunstraum of the University of Lüneburg (D), 26.4. – 21.7.2001
• Exhibition in the Pavel-Haus, Laafeld in Styria at the EU-border (A), 21.9. – 13.10.2001
• 
  

The European Union member states’ restrictive immigration regulations mean that there is almost no chance to legally migrate to the EU and reside in a member state. For those who want to enter, making use of border crossing services is often the only possibility for penetrating ”Fortress Europe.”

The goal of the project ”Border Crossing Services” (”Dienstleistung: Fluchthilfe”) is to redefine and highlight the positive aspects of terms such as ”smuggler” or ”trafficker” which have been given a negative connotation through the dominant medial discourse. In contrast to the widespread model for representation, the actual act of ”smuggling” is not presented as a criminal exploitation of asylum seekers. Instead, we highlight the service character of this business made necessary by European policies of exclusion.

Associated themes such as borders, migration and escape were worked on in cooperation with anti-racist groups, migrant organizations and students at the University of Lüneburg.

The project ”Border Crossing Services” was realized in a variety of media such as a direct mailing and a video which, together with additional fields of information, form an exhibition in the Kunstraum Lüneburg.

The project is based on a process-oriented approach. Throughout the course of the project, results from the different areas of research mutually influenced the other aspects of the project.

Direct-mailing ”Neues Grenzblatt”

Participating groups: Platform ”Für eine Welt ohne Rassismus” (For a World without Racism), Forschungsgesellschaft: Flucht und Migration (Research Group: Flight and Migration), TATblatt, Zebra, Maiz, The Voice, Kanak Attak, TschuschenPower

In cooperation with anti-racist groups and migrant organizations, the informational brochure ”Neues Grenzblatt” was produced and distributed in April 2001 along the outer-borders in Styria (A) to 12,000 households as a direct-mailing. The layout had a ”folksy” design to allow easier entry into a confrontation with the themes. The popular design featuring pictures of the region and headlines such as ”Border Crossing – Quality Services” is meant to arouse the curiosity of the region’s inhabitants. The readers are confronted with anti-racist positions and perspectives which are marginalized in conservative media. In the text contributions from the participating groups, all have employed a language which could theoretically also appeal to readers less familiar with such material. The informational brochure was also distributed at diverse events (some held in public spaces) and in cooperation with leftist groups. The brochures are also freely available at the exhibition.

Video ”Border Crossing Services”

A video (DV, color, 51 min), forms a central element of the exhibition, and will also be shown at thematically related events and alternative video festivals. It confronts the hegemonic model for representation of ”border crossing services” and migration. Based on conversations carried out in Germany and Austria with immigrants and persons involved in the political left, the basic theme was separated into four sections for analysis and critique: ”Who is allowed to migrate?,” ”Celebrating and excluding,” ”About border crossing services” and ”Against racism.”

A representative of the activist group ”Taxistas” describes how taxi drivers in Germany are criminalized as ”smugglers” for transporting illegalized people. The section ”Celebrating and excluding” is a ”short report” about the latest war machinery for border security, eagerly presented by soldiers at a festival of the federal armed forces at the Heldenplatz in Vienna on the Austrian national holiday. In the section ”About border crossing services,” a conversation with a leading border patrol officer in Frankfurt an der Oder shows contradictory arguments which are used to try to legitimize racist mechanisms for exclusion. The digital video premiered in March 2001 at the Diagonale, the Austrian film festival, in the framework of the events series ”Politik bilden!” (”Form Politics!”).

Exhibition ”Border Crossing Services”

Project group Lüneburg: Tina Dust, Uta Gielke, Maja Grafe, Nina Heinlein, Patricia Holder, Mara Horstmann, Sarah Kaeberich, Nina Koch, Susanne Neubronner, Astrid Robbers, Stig Oeveraas, Sabine Zaeske

Starting from a block seminar which we carried out at the University of Lüneburg, participating students formed a self-organized project group. In order to counteract the hierarchical relations which can possibly develop in the cooperative work between artists and students, we decided to present together the works which we co-produced, the independently produced contributions of the project groups and our own exhibition contributions in a commonly created exhibition framework.

All of the exhibition contributions were discussed in working meetings held at various stages of development. Thus, critique could subsequently be integrated into the later stages of the production process.

During a visit to Frankfurt an der Oder, research was carried out at the border. Elements of this research flowed into a video produced by the students which deals with further facets of the theme of migration and border crossing services. Conversations between members of the project group with students in Frankfurt an der Oder, with representatives of the migrant group ”Kanak Attak” in Hamburg and with representatives of ”Netzwerk gegen Rechts” in Lüneburg form a pool of research which allows insight into the local situations and reflects the students’ approach to the theme. The resulting video, edited by the project group was shown along with the video ”Border Crossing Services” as a video projection in the exhibition.

In a wall installation, texts, direct-mailings and flyers refer to the work of the groups who wrote articles for the ”Neues Grenzblatt” and to other contacted groups.

Based on a seminar on racism led by Ulf Wuggenig at the University of Lüneburg held during this time, the project group chose quotes from the literature discussed and discussed them with us. This is shown in an exhibit of text passages from the literature, which together with anti-racist magazines form a theoretical framework for the individual elements of the exhibition.

The project was sponsored by the Kunstraum of the University of Lüneburg and Verein Ökologie und Kunst, which supports the cooperation of art and science in the framework of cultural landscape research.

For more information about this project visit the original project website from 2001.

]]> http://www.ressler.at/border_crossing/feed/ 0 http://www.ressler.at/focus_on_companies/ http://www.ressler.at/focus_on_companies/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2000 18:50:46 +0000 flo http://www.ressler.at/cms/?p=26

A contribution by Oliver Ressler to the exhibition “Modell, Modell…” by the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein in Germany, which took place at various institutes of the RWTH Aachen in spring 2000.

“Focus on Companies” referred to an exhibition taking place at the same time in Aachen, “Focus on Genes”. “Focus on Genes” is a travelling exhibition put together by the socio-culturally agile Hygiene-Museum in Dresden which attempts to represent genetic engineering “in a popular scientific and experience oriented way.”

According to the announcement of the project, the “fundamental contents of the exhibition, ‘Focus on Genes’ are dealt with in great detail in a richly illustrated catalogue which was published in the framework of the ‘Gene-Worlds’ project in 1998.” Similar to this preceding exhibition from the Hygiene-Museum, once again knowledge about genetic engineering should be presented for “forming your own opinion” and coming closer to the goal of “weighing out the chances and risks which the use of genetic engineering offers from a medical, ethical and social perspective.”

To provide a counterpoint to the five “Gene-Worlds” (“Gen-Welten”) exhibitions shown in Germany and Switzerland, in 1998 I simultaneously realized the project “antiGene Worlds: Oppositions to Genetic Engineering“.* In a text published in the context of this project** I pointed out that the concept of “Gene-Worlds” is based on the false assumption that individuals can contribute to the decisions made about which technologies are implemented and which are not. The decisions about these things are not made in a democratic way, but, rather, in connection with powerful financial interests and the political pressure from companies. In both “Gene-Worlds” and “Focus on Genes,” the exhibition’s role consists solely in creating acceptance!

The project “Focus on Companies” therefore put those companies which advance genetic engineering research and product development at the center of critique.

The starting point for the print series on aluminum produced for the exhibition in Aachen were current publications from companies such as Novartis, Schering, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Roche, which appeared as sponsors for “Focus on Genes”. Selected pages from company reports and brochures were chosen whereby the original texts which thematize the various areas within genetic engineering are replaced by black framed yellow text fields.

In contrast to the “warning signs” of the “antiGene Worlds” project, the dangers which arise from the technologies themselves are not at the center but rather the ecological and social logic of genetic engineering and its global, socio-political effects. For such areas there is no place either in the publications of the companies or in “Focus on Genes”.

Therefore, the texts of the companies’ brochures are covered over with a political commentary which takes up various themes from the exhibition (Xenotransplantations, Gentech-rice with Vitamin A, anti-squash tomatoes) and takes on other perspectives.

* Oliver Ressler, geGen-Welten: Widerstände gegen Gentechnologien, Edition Selene, 1998, 84 pages.

** Various versions were printed in the “antiGene Worlds”-publication, in the magazines ak – analyse & kritik, iz3w – Blätter des Informationszentrums 3. Welt and in the GID – Gen-ethischer Informationsdienst.