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From:
Oliver Ressler <oliver@ressler.at>Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 6:07 PM
Subject: [Newsletter] Film screenings: Socialism Failed, Capitalism is Bankrupt. What comes Next?
To:
newsletter@ressler.at
SOCIALISM FAILED, CAPITALISM IS BANKRUPT. WHAT COMES
NEXT?
A film by Oliver Ressler, 19 min, 2010
Upcoming screenings:
Beijing New Youth Film Festival, Bejing (PRC), 14/09/11, 2 pm
http://www.austrosinoartsprogram.org
“Afghan-Kuzminki. Human Oratorio”, Victoria Gallery, part of 4th
Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow (RU), 25/09/11, 8 pm
http://4th.moscowbiennale.ru/en/program/special_projects/afgan_en.html
Document 9, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (UK)
21/10/11, 8 pm; followed by a Q & A session with O. Ressler,
led by Katarzyna Kosmala
http://documentfilmfestival.org
The 2-channel video installation “Socialism Failed, Capitalism is
Bankrupt. What comes Next?” is currently presented in the
exhibition:
“The Workers”
MASS MoCA – Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams
(USA)
till Mar 15, 2012
http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=631
“Socialism Failed, Capitalism is Bankrupt. What comes Next?”
focuses on the political and economic situation in the Republic of
Armenia, one of the successor states of the Soviet Union. The film
was recorded in summer 2010 in Yerevan’s largest bazaar, called
“Bangladesh”. Every day more than 1000 people try to survive as
traders in the “Bangladesh” bazaar, where an average vendor does
not earn more than 100 to 250 Euros per month. In the film, the
market’s traders talk about their struggles to survive during
crises in a post-socialist state that closed most Soviet-era
factories and dissolved social safety nets. The market’s traders,
primarily former factory-workers, describe how their living
conditions worsened after the end of the Soviet Union; they speak
about their hopes and expectations for social change. While they
live in misery, a small but highly influential class of corrupt
politicians and super-rich oligarchs team up with international
corporations in order to fill their pockets with profits from
transferring state property and licenses for mining.
A former mathematics professor Levon Yeremyan, who now survives by
trading in the “Bangladesh” bazaar, notes, “95 per cent of people
work and get the minimum wage, which is ridiculously low by
European standards, and 5 per cent live like Arab sheikhs.” Most
people would definitely agree with his description of the wide gap
between the impoverished masses and the oligarchs in Armenia. This
deep divide contradicts the official flattering data.
Concept, camera, sound recording, video editing and
production: Oliver Ressler
Interviews, translation and editing assistance: Arpineh Galfayan
Audio mix and color correction: Rudi Gottsberger
The project was done during a residency in Yerevan in the
framework of the project “Eat and Work”, directed by Anna
Barseghian, supported by Utopiana and BM:UKK.
Check out the film online at http://www.ressler.at/socialism_failed/
Image: 2-channel
video installation and floor piece at Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Krakow
(PL)
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