Oliver Ressler

(Knittelfeld, Austria, 1970)

Visual artist and filmmaker, he uses different media in his work: multichannel video installations, films, photographs, images, posters and wall texts. All of them have a common thread: the occupation following political struggles and social movements in different parts of the world. For Ressler, the importance of forms of occupation lies in the fact that they go beyond the specific local contexts in which they occur: they show that occupation is an option for the future. The archives that he creates and then presents as artistic proposals not only document the events, but also generate tools for future struggles for a better future. In his projects he analyzes the capitalist system, with special interest in forms of resistance and socio-economic alternatives, and directly involving the protagonists of these social movements. In 2002, Ressler's video "This Is Democracy!" won the 1st prize of the International Media Art Award of the ZKM

At MediaLab Madrid he presents This is what democracy looks like! (2002). This video documents a prohibited demonstration against the World Economic Forum that took place in Salzburg in July 2001. The central theme of this documentary is the suspension of a basic democratic right, such as the right to demonstrate, as well as the reflection on of the physical and structural violence exercised by state power, which in this case was practiced through the subjection of some 900 people to a police cordon for seven hours. The video also alludes to media manipulation that tends to criminalize any expression of dissent, while legitimizing a supranational economic and financial structure which, without any democratic representation, exercises decision-making power over millions of people around the planet. Video material from Indymedia Austria, Filmliga Linz, Offscreen-Offenes Film Forum Salzburg, UTV Vienna and Oliver Ressler. 

This video documents a banned demonstration against the World Economic Forum that took place in Salzburg in July 2001.
The central theme of this documentary is the suspension of a basic democratic right, such as the right to demonstrate, as well as the reflection on the physical and structural violence exercised by state power, which in this case was practiced through the subjugation of about 900 people to a police cordon for seven hours. The video also alludes to media manipulation that tends to criminalize any expression of dissent, while legitimizing a supranational economic and financial structure which, without any democratic representation, exercises decision-making power over millions of people around the planet.
Video material from Indymedia Austria, Filmliga Linz, Offscreen-Offenes Film Forum Salzburg, UTV Vienna and Oliver Ressler.