[artinfo] The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory

[Oliver Ressler]

It's the Political Economy, Stupid - The Global 
Financial Crisis in Art and Theory
Edited by Gregory Sholette, Oliver Ressler
Pluto Press, 192 p., 2013

Further information and orders:
<http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745333694>http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745333694

"Confrontational, intellectual, and occasionally 
amusing group show, which squarely aligns itself 
with the Occupy movement" - The Village Voice 
praising the exhibition on which the book is 
based.

"This exhibition, curated by artists Oliver 
Ressler and Gregory Sholette, predominantly 
comprises video-based political works from an 
international roster of artists. Taking its title 
from an essay by cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek, 
who adapted the phrase from a 1992 Bill Clinton 
campaign slogan, the show is a timely reminder of 
the perils of unchecked free-market ideology." - 
David Markus, Art in America

"In the wake of the capitalist crisis, very few 
cultural institutions have dared to address the 
horrors of greed that plague us in such a direct 
and haunting way." - Alexander Cavaluzzo on 
Hyperallergic


It's the Political Economy, Stupid argues that it 
is time to push back against the dictates of the 
capitalist logic and, by use of both theoretical 
and artistic means, launch a rescue of the very 
notion of the social. Edited and organized by two 
activist artists, Gregory Sholette and Oliver 
Ressler, the project offers a powerful indictment 
of the current capitalist crisis.

It's the Political Economy, Stupid - The Global 
Financial Crisis in Art and Theory combines 
analytical and theoretical responses from 
internationally acclaimed artists and thinkers 
including Slavoj Zizek, David Graeber, Judith 
Butler, John Roberts, Brian Holmes, Julia 
Brian-Wilson, Liz Park and Kerstin Stakemeier.

The book was designed by artist and activist Noel 
Douglas using visual themes based on graphics 
derived from Goldman Sachs online stock market 
pages.


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The exhibition It's the Political Economy, Stupid 
launched a preview exhibition at Open Space in 
Vienna (2011), continued at Austrian Cultural 
Forum in New York and Centre of Contemporary Art 
in Thessaloniki (both 2012), and is currently on 
display at Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland (till 
26 May 2013).

Participating Artists in the show at 
<http://www.poriartmuseum.fi/eng/exhibitions/>Pori 
Art Museum:
Filippo Berta (IT), Julia Christensen (US), Field 
Work (DK), Yevgeniy Fiks, Olga Kopenkina & 
Alexandra Lerman (US), Flo6x8 (ES), Melanie 
Gilligan (CA), Jan Peter Hammer (DE), Alicia 
Herrero (AR), Institute For Wishful Thinking 
(US), Sherry Millner & Ernie Larsen (US), Ólafur 
Ólafsson (IS) & Libia Castro (ES), Isa 
Rosenberger (AT), Dread Scott (US), Superflex 
(DK), Zanny Begg (AU) & Oliver Ressler (AT)


About The Authors:
<http://www.gregorysholette.com/>Gregory Sholette 
is an artist, activist and author based in New 
York. He co-founded two artists' collectives: 
Political Art Documentation and Distribution 
(1980-88) and REPOhistory (1989-2000). He is the 
author of Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the 
Age of Enterprise Culture (Pluto, 2010) and 
co-editor of Collectivism after Modernism: The 
Art of Social Imagination after 1945 (2007) and 
The Interventionists: Users' Manual for the 
Creative Disruption of Everyday Life (2004).

<http://www.ressler.at>Oliver Ressler is an 
artist and filmmaker based in Vienna. His work 
has been exhibited across the world including at 
the Berkeley Art Museum, USA; Platform Garanti 
Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul and the 
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Egypt. He is 
the editor of Alternative Economics, Alternative 
Societies (2007).