Take The Square
Video-installation, 88 min, 2012
The installation is based on discussions conducted with activists from 15M in Madrid, the Syntagma Square movement in Athens and Occupy Wall Street in New York. Re-enacting the format of the working groups of the protest movements, four to six activists discuss with each other as a group in front of a camera. The discussions cover issues of organization, horizontal decision-making processes, the importance and function of occupying public spaces and how social change can occur. The films were shot in the spring of 2012 in those places used by the movements of the squares for meetings and working groups. Installation brings together activists from three cities central to the movement, tries to contribute to spreading the organizational knowledge of the movements and translate the processes between these places in transition.
Artist's Bio:
Lives and works in Vienna, produces exhibitions, projects in the public space, and films on issues such as economics, democracy, global warming, forms of resistance and social alternatives. Ressler had solo exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum, USA; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Egypt and The Cube Project Space, Taipei. He has participated in more than 250 group exhibitions, including the biennials in Prague (2005), Seville (2006), Moscow (2007), Taipei (2008), Lyon (2009), Gyumri (2012), Venice (2013) and Athens (2013). A traveling show on the financial crisis, It’s the Political Economy, Stupid, co-curated with Gregory Sholette, will take place at Gallery 400 in Chicago.