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7/10/2004

There must be an alternative

Forum Stadtpark, Graz

An exhibition curated by Oliver Ressler

Opening: October 8th 2004, 9 pm

Round table with participating artists: October 10th 2004, 11 am

Artists and groups of artists:
Bernadette Corporation (USA/F/D), bureau d'etudes (F), Etcetera (Argentina), Aernout Mik (NL), Oliver Ressler (A), The Yes Men (USA)

"There is no alternative." This statement was made by the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with regard to the economic injustices of the 1980s. At the same time the politically wanted processes of restructuring were continued favoring transnational companies and the high finance. To describe globalized capitalism as a sort of fateful factor to which there can be no alternative still is a popular strategy of neoliberal ideologists.

During the last years the international so-called Anti-Globalization-Movement and various social forums managed to publicly question the processes of capitalist rule. "There must be an alternative." This opinion was voiced within some of these forums and also forms the frame for the artistic contributions of this exhibition in the Forum Stadtpark. The exhibition assembles artistic positions of analysis and critique of existing (economic) systems and of resistance against these systems and zooms in on basic approaches to possible alternatives to capitalism.

By showing brokers restlessly staring and shocked by a crash in a room at the stock-market Aernout Mik's video installation "Middlemen" displays the insecurity which is structurally linked with a capitalist society. The big posters by bureau d'etudes (http://bureaudetudes.free.fr) represent the attempt to map the global operating modes and power structures in capitalism. Etcetera show cardboard figures designed as political actors from their series "Gente Armada" previously used in performances in the streets of Buenos Aires. The Yes Men personated representatives of the World Trade Organization (gatt.org); the video "The Horribly Stupid Stunt" shows their performance during a congress at the University of Salzburg. For the Bernadette Corporation taking part in the G8-protests in Genoa 2001 was the starting point for their video "Get Rid Of Yourself" which critically questions representation and picks connections between radical forms of protest and fashion/lifestyle out as a central theme. In various short videos the work-in-progress project "Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies" by Oliver Ressler (http://www.ressler.at) focuses on different concepts and models for alternative economies and societies the common ground of which is the rejection of the system of capitalist rule.

Image: Abb.: Aernout Mik, "Middlemen" Videostill / Ausschnitt, courtesy carlier | gebauer, Berlin

FORUM STADTPARK
Stadtpark 1
8010 Graz, Austria
Opening hours:
Tue - Fri 10 am - 6 pm,
Sat, Sun, holiday 2 - 6 pm

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