Global
Cloud
Local
A series of programs exploring the development of civil and social disobedience around the world in response to globalization
Slought is pleased to announce "Boom," a storefront exhibition by Austrian artist Oliver Ressler and US artist David Thorne from February 28-March 26, 2003. The US premier of the 2002 documentary Disobbedienti (54 min, Italian with English Subtitles) by Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini will take place on Wednesday, March 5, 2003, with an introduction by Reinaldo Laddaga.
"Boom!" was the result of a collaboration between Austrian artist Oliver Ressler and US artist David Thorne. "The project consists of photo-text works in various media designed for flexible production and application in a range of display contexts. The works inject lengthy statements into the traditionally short linguistic structure of the "url" to generate dysfunctional web addresses which examine some of the central myths of globalized capitalism. These urls are combined with additional texts and photographs in order to suggest that the current economic situation is a manifestation of the deepening crises of capitalism, and that "boom" must be understood not only as "expansion" (capital in search of return) but also as potential collapse or explosion.
The video Disobbedienti thematizes the Disobbedienti's origins, political bases, and forms of direct action on the basis of conversations with seven members of the movement. The Disobbedienti emerged from the Tute Bianche during the demonstrations against the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001. The 'Tute Bianche' were the white-clad Italian activists who used their bodies--protected by foam rubber, tires, helmets, gas masks, and homemade shields--in direct acts and demonstrations as weapons of civil disobedience. At the G8 summit in Genoa the Tute Bianche decided to take off their trademark white overalls that had given them their name and instead blend in the multitude of 300,000 demonstration participants. The transition from the Tute Bianche to the Disobbedienti, the disobedients, also marked a development from 'civil disobedience' to 'social disobedience.' In the video, the Disobbedienti spokesperson Luca Casarini describes the Tute Bianche as a subjective experience and a small army, whereas Disobbedienti is a multitude and a movement.
Oliver Ressler is an artist who carries out projects on various socio-political themes. Since 1994 he has been concerned with exhibitions, site specific projects and videos on issues such as racism, economic globalization, sustainable development, genetic engineering and forms of resistance. Many of his recent works are realized as collaborations, the project "Boom!" on myths of economic globalization with US-artist David Thorne, the video "Disobbedienti" about this activist movement with the Italian writer Dario Azzellini, and "Border Crossing Services" with the Austrian artist Martin Krenn.
David Thorne is an artist in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in subway stations, art spaces, political publications, community centers, and street demonstrations. Current projects include the ongoing series of artist bookworks "Men in the News"; the collective project "Resistant Strains," producing political graphics and traveling exhibitions; and "The Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification," a collaboration with artist Julia Meltzer.
Dario Azzellini is an Italian writer and journalist based in Berlin.
Reinaldo Laddaga is Assistant Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Literaturas indigentes y placeres bajos (Beatriz Viterbo, 2000), a study of the links between literature and ethics in the works of Felisberto Hernández, Virgilio Piñera, and Juan Rodofo Wilcock; La euforia de Baltasar Brum (Tusquets, 1999), a novel; and numerous articles and critical essays on literature, art, and film.