Oliver Ressler
Scenes from the Invention of Democracy

Oliver Ressler, "We Are the Forest Enclosed by the Wall", 4K video, 2025. Courtesy of the artist, àngels barcelona © ProLitteris, Zurich

Oliver Ressler
Scenes from the Invention of Democracy

24 September 2025 – 1 March 2026

Scenes from the Invention of Democracy features the work of Austrian artist Oliver Ressler (b. 1970) who for many years has been operating at the interface of art and activism. The show presents four video works, all of which turn on political, social and environmental issues. Ressler aims to stimulate critical reflection on the status quo while highlighting the options for direct action open to those who seek change.

Engaging with subjects such as democracy, work, migration and the environment, all of which are inextricably interwoven and similarly exposed to the impacts of globalisation and capitalism, Ressler trains his critical gaze on political systems, the influence of economics and how we are treating our planet. By documenting protests and acts of civil disobedience, Ressler encourages us to ponder existing power structures as well as the scope for action open to those wanting to bring about political and social change.

Oliver Ressler, What Is Democracy?, 8-channel video installation, 2009. Exhibition view: Without Reality There Is No Utopia, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2013. Courtesy of the artist, àngels barcelona. Photo: John White/Phocasso, courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts © ProLitteris, Zurich

The exhibition presents four video works, each of which serves as a vivid demonstration of Ressler’s artistic practice. The works derive all the more urgency and topicality from the on-going climate crisis and global rise of authoritarianism.


The 8-channel video installation What is Democracy? (2009) is based on interviews with activists and political analysts from eighteen cities all over the world. The question posed by the title turns out to be ambiguous: Are the prevailing forms of representative and direct democracy truly democratic? Are there alternative, more democratic models? And what might their organisational structures look like? The work opens up a wide range of perspectives that even years later have lost none of their relevance. On the contrary, at a time when there is ever more talk of a “crisis of democracy”, Ressler’s installation provides food for thought.

Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler, Anubumin, HD video, 2017. Courtesy of the artists, àngels barcelona © ProLitteris, Zurich

Anubumin (2017) focuses on the Pacific island of Nauru. Created in collaboration with Australian artist Zanny Begg, the film addresses the environmental and economic consequences of decades of phosphate mining on the island as well as the way it is being used now, including as a refugee internment camp run by the Australian government. The film’s combination of interviews with whistleblowers and a poetic narrative style serves to address colonial continuities and systematic human rights violations.

Oliver Ressler, Not Sinking, Swarming, 4K video, 2021. Courtesy of the artist, àngels Barcelona © ProLitteris, Zurich

Not Sinking, Swarming (2021) tells of a meeting of various campaign groups belonging to the climate movement in the run-up to a direct action protest in Madrid. The video offers a rare glimpse of what the organisation of such large-scale acts of civil disobedience entails and shows just how complex it can be. The subjects discussed include strategy, training and the wording of demands as well as the importance of legal assistance, dialogue with the police and financial aspects. The participants in the video are anonymised to shield them from prosecution. The work derives its unique visuals from its superimposition of footage of the direct action itself that saw hundreds of activists blocking a highway overpass. 

Oliver Ressler, We Are the Forest Enclosed by the Wall, 4K video, 2025. Courtesy of the artist, àngels barcelona © ProLitteris, Zurich

Ressler’s latest work, presented here for the first time, is also about protest. We Are the Forest Enclosed by the Wall (2025) takes as its starting point Porsche’s plans to expand a huge, high-speed test track for luxury automobiles in Apulia. The plan imperilled a centuries-old forest inside the circuit that is actually vital to the ecosystem of this drought-stricken region. The situation is a graphic illustration of how financially powerful corporations that promise economic growth are able to influence political decision-making, even at the cost of inflicting irreparable harm on the environment. The video work allows those local residents and activists who opposed the plan to have their say, addressing the conflict between economic interests, environmental responsibility and democratic participation. The fact that here, too, the interviewees are anonymised can be read as an indication of how even in democratic systems, those who dare protest are increasingly at risk of prosecution. But the film also offers a glimmer of hope in that the opposition to the test track expansion plan paid off: in March 2025, Porsche announced that it had decided not to pursue the project.

               Biography Oliver Ressler

Oliver Ressler is an artist and filmmaker who produces installations, projects in public space, and films on issues such as economics, democracy, migration, the climate crisis, forms of resistance and social alternatives.

Ressler has had solo exhibitions at Berkeley Art Museum, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid; Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Egypt; The Cube Project Space, Taipei; Kunsthaus Graz, Graz and comprehensive solo exhibitions at Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk; Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo – CAAC, Seville; SALT Galata, Istanbul; MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Cultural Centre of Belgrade; Belvedere 21, Vienna.

Ressler has participated in more than 400 group exhibitions, including Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; MASSMoCA, North Adams, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the biennials in Prague (2005), Seville (2006), Moscow (2007), Taipei (2008), Lyon (2009), Gyumri (2012), Venice (2013, 2024), Athens (2013, 2015), Quebec (2014), Helsinki (2014), Jeju (2017), Kyiv (2017), Gothenburg (2019) and Stavanger (2019), and at Documenta 14, Kassel, 2017 (exhibition organized by EMST). Ressler has completed forty-two films that have been screened in thousands of events of social movements, art institutions and film festivals. A retrospective of his films took place at Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève in 2013.

In 2002, Ressler won the first prize at the International Media Art Award of the ZKM in Karlsruhe and he is the first prize winner of the Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award in 2016. For the Taipei Biennale 2008, Ressler curated an exhibition on the counter-globalization movement, A World Where Many Worlds Fit. A travelling show on the financial crisis, It’s the Political Economy, Stupid, co-curated with Gregory Sholette, has been presented at nine venues (2011-2016). 2019–2023 Ressler has directed Barricading the Ice Sheets, a research project on the climate justice movement, funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Configurations of the project were solo exhibitions at Camera Austria, Graz (2021); Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2022); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin (2022); Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn (2022); LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón (2023); The Showroom, London (2023).


>> www.ressler.at

Curator: Tabea Panizzi
Assistant: Nils Lange

The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of an online catalogue with essays by Anthony Elms, Tabea Panizzi and Oliver Ressler.

Events

Opening with Artist Talk
>> 23.09.2025, 6:30 pm
Oliver Ressler in conversation with curator Tabea Panizzi
Free admission, in German

Curator's Tour
>> 20.11.2025, 7-7:30 pm (in German)
>> 19.02.2026, 7-7:30 pm (in English)
Free admission, no booking required

Introduction to the exhibition
>> 23.10.2025, 7-7:30 pm, (in German)
>> 04.12.2025, 6-6:30 pm, (in English)
>> 12.02.2026, 7-7:30 pm, (in German) 
Free admission, no booking required

Lecture Performance | What role can art play in political activism?
>> 04.12.2025, 7:30 pm
Alessandra Pomarico, curator and author, and Nikolai Oleynikov, artist, talk about artists’ engagement in the struggle against Porsche’s track expansion in Apulia. They will share insights from Free Home University, their artistic­pedagogical initiative in Salento.
Free admission, no booking required, in English


Lecture | Democracy and Fascism
>> 09.12.2025, 10.15 am -12 pm
Lecture by Dr. Carolin Amlinger and Prof. Dr. Oliver Nachtwey as part of the series "Late Modern Authoritarianism: Causes, Dynamics, and Variants," in cooperation with the University of Basel.
Free admission, no booking required, in German

Panel Talk | What Is Democracy? 2009 → 2026
>> 15.01.2026, 7 pm
What can democracy be today? 17 years after completing the video installation What Is Democracy?, Ressler discusses this question with participants from Denmark, Poland and Hungary, whom he interviewed at that time as part of the work.
Free admission, in English

Extra Muros | Discussion: What to Do in the Face of the Climate Crisis?
>> 22.01.2026, 7 pm - 8:30 pm
The discussion features literary and cultural scholar Boris Previšić (“Zeitkollaps”) as well as climate activist and author Cyrill Hermann (“What Do We Want?”).
Location: GGG City Library Schmiedenhof Basel, Admission: 10/7 CHF, in German

Museums Night | Democratic Landscapes
>> 23.01.2026, 6 pm - 2 am

Family Sunday
>> 08.02.2026, 11:30 am - 5 pm 
Drop-in workshops and participatory activities at Speakers’ Corner. Make your opinion public! We’ll help you do it. Preparation meeting: 04.02.2026, registration at info@kinderbuero­basel.ch

 

Postcards with Questions about Democracy
For three years, the Democracy Lab Basel has tested and evaluated new forms of political participation. Learn more about this and share your thoughts on the bulletin board in the museum.

 

Extra Muros | Wild Democracy
Discover a curated selection of media at the GGG City Library Schmiedenhof. A television documentary showcases more about Ressler’s work and his approaches.