Parco Arte Vivente presents Marcelo Expósito and Oliver Ressler: Dissent Machines

PAV (Parco Arte Vivente) announces its latest exhibition, ‘Dissent Machines’, a double solo exhibition by Marcelo Expósito and Oliver Ressler. The exhibition, curated by Marco Scotini, investigates the relationship between climate justice and radical criticism of neoliberalism within a choral and collective perspective. The show opens following Regina José Galindo’s solo exhibition, Tierra.

Marcelo Expósito and Oliver Ressler, both filmmakers and authors of text-based works, are known for their important contributions to the relationship between art and activism, creating new forms of subjectivity and possibilities for living, generating aesthetic models as well as political and social forces all over the world. The artists have been active for more than twenty years, working within the ambit of collaborative experimentation linked to the emergence of social movements that the philosopher Gerald Raunig defines as “machines”, an image indebted to Deleuze and Guattari and Italian workerism.

The exhibition begins with a powerful denunciation of the triumph of neoliberal politics and the exaltation of the private will, making it impossible to achieve environmental sustainability and climate justice. Oliver Ressler’s work, ‘Every Round-trip Ticket on Flights from New York to London Costs the Arctic Three More Square Meters of Ice’ and the series ‘Reclaiming Abundance’, focuses on the transformations required to achieve a zero-emissions society. ‘How Is the Air Up There?’ and ‘The Path is Never the Same’ tell the story of the activists who have occupied the trees in the forest of Hambach, laying claim to the air today. ‘Anubumin’, a film made in collaboration with Zanny Begg, concentrates on the history of exploitation and neocolonial oppression on the tiny island of Nauru.

Marcelo Expósito’s works investigate the development of the post-Fordist city during the long cycle of neoliberal globalization, highlighting the relationships between the current systemic crisis and the emergence of new political subjectivities. Expósito’s investigation makes use of a dialogue with feminist and anti-racism movements, sexual dissidences, and climate justice movements. The exhibition includes a body of works, ‘Perchè il naufragio non avvenga (So that the Shipwreck Does Not Occur)’, that draws on the thoughts of Gramsci and other key figures of twentieth-century political history.

The exhibition, which includes three original pieces created for the show, is a continuation of Expósito and Ressler’s journey from anti-globalization battles to the forms of mobilization that aim to defend both the earth and social justice.

The exhibition is not to be missed for those interested in the relationship between art and activism, climate justice, and radical criticism of neoliberalism. ‘Dissent Machines’ is on view at PAV from March 11th to June 13th, 2023.