'The Global 500' is a project consisting of three installations that will be presented at different locations and countries. The first presentation took place at the Stadpark Gallery of Krems (Austria), the second one is now during the World Wide Video Festival in Amsterdam and the last one will be at the Truck Gallery in Calgary (Canada). The project is a political statement on the idea of 'globalization'. According to Ressler the main players in the economic game now spreading all over the world are the 500 largest multinationals. 'Fortune', the magazine on economic affairs, publishes a list every year of these globally operating 500 companies, in the order of which made the most profit. Ressler started his ambitious project by researching websites and financial reports of these 500 big companies. A selection from company information and statements representing various strategies and discourses of economic globalisation have been incorporated in this exhibition, together with a videotape and a website. The most common ideas on globalization are being discussed, analyzed and criticized by representatives of associations and companies, theorists and economists. Statements from people such as Charles Auckland, theorist on culture and media, and Birgit Mahnkopf, professor of European Politics, can be seen as visual representations of globalization. Like the quotes from studies and annual reports by the multinationals, these statements are displayed abundantly on boards with text hanging on the wall. Randomly scattered among these are manipulated black and white renditions of glossy company posters. Combined with a large two by three meter video projection in an adjacent room they give an impression of the influence multinationals have and actively exert upon social developments. In many cases they are not concerned with common social interests but with proclaiming and legitimising political strategies aimed at generating economical change.
– Nathallie Zonnenberg
|
Oliver Ressler ° 1970, Knittelfeld (Austria)
Lives and works in Vienna (Austria)
|
|
1 9 9 9 
