Oliver Ressler - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Oliver Ressler

Arts & International Affairs

The multi-site exhibition Catastrophe Bonds represents the first survey of the work of Austrian a... more The multi-site exhibition Catastrophe Bonds represents the first survey of the work of Austrian artist Oliver Ressler exhibited in the United States. Ressler’s work is both urgent and timely. Reactionary populist movements have been on the ascendency in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, and counter-movements seeking to reassert the values of liberal democracy have risen in opposition to the threats against civil liberties and the attacks upon democratic institutions. In this exhibition, Ressler’s focus on enacting and expanding forms of democracy is especially compelling and timely. The selected works in the exhibition focus on forms of grassroots democracy, economic and political alternatives to the existing state of global affairs, activism around climate change, and issues relating to what has been described as the European “migration crisis.” But, as Ressler’s work points out, it is not a crisis of migration. Rather, it is a crisis of war, terror, and economic strangulation that has forced people to move. A key unifying theme running through the work is envisioning and attempting to enact new forms of vibrant social and economic democracy where all voices are welcomed in the deliberative process. This theme is explored through documentary work highlighting grassroots organizing efforts, video interviews with contemporary thinkers on alternative social and economic models and their historical precedents, and on the pressures that the current catastrophes of climate change and emergency migration are having on representative democracies around the globe. The exhibition and its related public programming were developed as a collaborative project sponsored by the art programs at St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and through the joint International Visiting Scholars Program of the two institutions. The exhibition was curated by Brandon Bauer, Associate Professor of Art, St. Norbert College, in association with Shan Bryan-Hanson, curator of art galleries and collections, St. Norbert College, and Kate Mothes, curator of the Lawton Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. A catalog was published to accompany the exhibition by the St. Norbert College press.

"Oliver Ressler: Gathering Around Wreckage", 2020

Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom, 2015

The global financial and economic crisis starting in 2008 and the response of the political elite... more The global financial and economic crisis starting in 2008 and the response of the political elites have discredited representative democracy, politicians and the capitalist order in the eyes of many, as huge movements, mass protests and uprisings throughout the world showed. More and more people realise that the existing order does not have to prevail forever, that it can be altered and changed. Utopian rehearsals, experiments with new economic forms and horizontal ways of social organising can be found all over the world. They are testament to the demand for a ‘real democracy now!’ raised by 15 million in Spain, among others.

EX ECONOMIST, 2016

THE EXECONOMIST ist ein projektbezogenes Magazin, das der Kunstverein Neuhausen 2016 anlässlich d... more THE EXECONOMIST ist ein projektbezogenes Magazin, das der Kunstverein Neuhausen 2016 anlässlich der Ausstellung "«OUR MIND INTO A BREZEL - Neue Sichtweisen auf Tauschmittel, Finanzwelt und Ökonomie" herausgegeben hat.
“It turns the mind into a brezel” ist ein Zitat des ehemaligen belgischen Notenbankers und Professors für internationales Finanzwesen Bernard Lietaer. Mit dieser Metapher beschreibt der ehemalige Notenbanker die Auswirkungen des Geldes auf unser Denken und Bewusstsein. Lietaer zufolge lässt die Gier und das Streben nach Geld uns nicht mehr geradeaus denken, sondern nimmt sonderbare Verschlingungen und Verknotungen an, eben die einer geflochtenen Brezel. In den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten gab es eine Reihe künstlerischer Positionen, die sich auf diese Thematik beziehen. Auch in anderen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen wurden wenig beachtete Versuche unternommen, andere Formen des Wirtschaftens zu praktizieren. Die Grundidee von «Our Mind into a Brezel» ist, die einzelnen ökonomischen Gegenentwürfe zusammenzufassen und in einem mehrteiligen Kunstprojekt zu reflektieren. In der projektbezogenen Zeitung, die dem Layout eines Wirtschaftsjournals nachempfunden ist, sollen neben Beiträgen aus dem Bereich der Bildenden Kunst auch Vertreter einer kritischen Wirtschafts- und Finanztheorie sowie Experten von «Commons» , Umverteilungs- und «Sharing» Projekten» zu Wort kommen.
Mit Beiträgen von: Kai Bauer, Susanne Bosch; Heiner Flassbeck, Dietrich Heissenbüttel, Susanne Jakob, Peter Kees, Oliver Ressler/ Mike Watson, Klaus Schönberger, Joel Tauber, Hans Winkler, Georg Winter, u.v. a.)
Herausgeber Kunstverein Neuhausen
Konzept: Kai Bauer, Susanne Jakob, Hans Winkler
Gestaltung: Uli Cluss, Stuttgart/Berlin

Projekt und Publikation wurden gefördert von der Stiftung Kunstfonds, Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Land Baden-Württemberg und der Kommune Neuhausen/Fildern.

Oliver Ressler – Catastrophe Bonds, 2018

An Interview with Brandon Bauer and Oliver Ressler on the occasion of his exhibition "Catastrophe... more An Interview with Brandon Bauer and Oliver Ressler on the occasion of his exhibition "Catastrophe Bonds", the first survey of Oliver Ressler‘s work in the United States. The exhibition focuses on forms of grassroots democracy as well as economic and political alternatives to the existing state of global affairs. This interview was published in the book that accompanied the exhibition.

Edited issues by Oliver Ressler

Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contemporáneo/ REGAC Journal

Within the framework of the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, REG | AC journal dedicates... more Within the framework of the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, REG | AC journal dedicates a monographic edition to NON-TEXTUAL UTOPIAS, seeking to reflect on utopias that are not based on the written text. In this respect, it conducts a reflection on artistic practices and the expression of the utopian within contemporary visual culture. Understanding the symbolic as an expanded field that merges with the performative and the spatial, this issue also includes contributions that consider the utopian dimensions of political and communitarian practices.

Online Publications & Projects by Oliver Ressler

Arts & International Affairs, 2019

The exhibition and its related public programming were developed as a collaborative project sponsored by the art programs at St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and through the joint International Visiting Scholars Program of the two institutions. The exhibition was curated by Brandon Bauer, Associate Professor of Art, St. Norbert College, in association with Shan Bryan-Hanson, curator of art galleries and collections, St. Norbert College, and Kate Mothes, curator of the Lawton Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. A catalog was published to accompany the exhibition by the St. Norbert College press.

Books, Book Chapters, & Contribution by Oliver Ressler

Oliver Ressler : Catastrophe Bonds, 2018

A PDF of the catalog produced on the occasion of the exhibition "Catastrophe Bonds", the first su... more A PDF of the catalog produced on the occasion of the exhibition "Catastrophe Bonds", the first survey of Oliver Ressler‘s work in the United States. The exhibition focuses on forms of grassroots democracy as well as economic and political alternatives to the existing state of global affairs.

Books by Oliver Ressler

Along Ecological Lines - Contemporary Art and Climate Crisis , 2019

Along Ecological Lines - Contemporary Art and Climate Crisis is a critical anthology edited and c... more Along Ecological Lines - Contemporary Art and Climate Crisis is a critical anthology edited and curated by Dr. Barnaby Drabble and published by Gaia Project Press in partnership with édhéa, Valais School of Art, Sierre.

It brings together essays, interviews and case studies, which introduce and examine the work and ideas of a range of environmentally engaged artists working in Europe today.

Providing readers an insight into practices that are dealing in different ways with the urgent and complex manifestations of climate change, this book addresses questions about how art can positively enter a discourse which is often dominated by political and scientific voices.

Spanning seven chapters of writings by artists, activists and academics, this volume brings together various interconnected themes from self-sufficiency and civil disobedience, to inter-species justice, divestment, de-growth and environmental ethics.

The collected texts reveal a new immediacy amongst a growing network of practitioners collaborating across disciplines to bring creative, at times visionary methods to bear on environmental and ecological challenges.