Oliver Ressler: Barricading the Ice Sheets

As multimedia artist based in Vienna, Oliver Ressler has over the years sustained an artistic practice around a topic that brings together art and activism, placing emphasis on the climate breakdown that affects all areas of our lives as well as forms of collective resistance and presenting constructive alternatives for society. The title of the exhibition – “Barracading the Ice Sheets” – refers to the momentous tasks that the climate justice movement takes on and how it goes about to achieve its goals. As the artist remarks, the action of actually barricading the melting ice sheets is impossible in actuality. And yet in the face of this, the movement, deeply aware of the stakes of the interlacing threats to our planet, is nonetheless endeavoring to achieve what has never been done before. Can the seemingly impossible become achievable through collective action?

The exhibition comprises a multi-channel video installation, photographic works, drawings, prints and sculptures: the artist untangles through a non-neutral lens the complex connections between the environment, politics, economics and the potential for social change. “Barricading the Ice Sheets” aims to give an overview of the forms of mobilisations (activities, protests, gatherings, meetings) of worldwide actors for change.