18 May 2011

Oliver Ressler: We Have a Situation Here

The exhibition, 'We Have a Situation Here', gathers a series of posters, photographs and films that Oliver Ressler has created in recent years. It provides an insight into the different strands and strategies of Ressler's artistic work. His exhibitions, projects in public spaces, films, lectures, books and curated exhibitions refer to issues such as the economy, democracy, forms of resistance, social alternatives, racism and global warming. Ressler's position is always critical. 'Like other artists who seek to engage directly with the political sphere, Ressler approaches aesthetics practically, as a set of tools for getting the job done. To that end, his work may one day consist of posters and videos, another day involve architecturally contingent visual elements, and another day make use of organizational and pedagogical situations to open up public discussion and debate. [...] Ressler's claim of moving back and forth between different spaces combining fiction and non-fiction underscores the danger artists can represent to the order of things,' writes Gregory Sholette. Marco Scotini adds: 'Ressler is one of the new generation of artists operating in the 'gray area' that exists between art and politics, who develop projects on a variety of social themes using different media. But what particularly distinguishes Ressler's work compared to others and has led to his international renown is the role of policy activist he assumes through his documentary and social inquiries, through the production of slogans and publicizing campaigns that serve many and various types of political agitation and social conflict, and finally through conferences, publications, counter-information campaigns and exhibitions that gather together the results of his investigations.'

The exhibition in Prenning combines photographs from the series 'Globalizing Protest' (since 2004) and 'We Have a Situation Here' (2011) and posters and billboards that were originally posted in different contexts in cities such as Amsterdam, Graz, Karlsruhe and Linz. This work is complemented by a video archive that offers viewing of the eleven films produced by Ressler since 2000. Among them are three films that deal with the so-called anti-globalization movement and three films about the political processes in Venezuela.


Oliver Ressler, born 1970 in Knittelfeld, lives and works in Vienna. His projects have been in solo exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum, USA; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Kunstraum at the University of Lüneburg; Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid and the Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Egypt. Ressler has participated in more than 200 group exhibitions, including the MASSMoCA, USA; Itaucultural Institute, Sao Paulo; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; CAAC, Sevilla; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven and at the biennials in Prague, Seville, Moscow, Taipei, Lyon and in the 4th Young Artists' Biennial in Bucharest. For the Taipei Biennale 2008, Ressler curated an exhibition on the anti-globalization movement, 'A World Where Many Worlds Fit', which was also installed in 2010 in the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop University, Sherbrooke, Canada. His book 'Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies' was published by the Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk in 2007.
www.ressler.at