THE REVENGE OF THE CRYSTALS 2012
By Fieldwork / Nis Rømer and Lise Skou
Shown at:
It’s the Political Economy Stupid, 2012 – 2014
A travelling video exhibition curated by Oliver Ressler and Gregory Sholette.
At: Pori Art Museum, Pori (FI). Gallery 404, Chicago (US). CZKD | Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade (Serbia) and more.
Also shown at:
Extreme Crafts, 2012
At: Freies Museum Berlin (BRD)
Curated by Ulrike Solbrig
The Revenge of the Crystal, is a five-part fictional narrative set in the aftermath of the present financial collapse. It is a moment in the near future when the failing global monetary system has destroyed almost every institution, and the decay of society has become a habit where a few alternative visions exists. The short film depicts the aftermath of a revolution in which a slamm collective of people form a fragile commune in a garden.
We see them learning the basic skills of survival and ways of living together. Step by step they fight to stay alive, attempting to do so without sacrificing their intellect or sense of solidarity. While focusing on the complexities of organizing a world that now resembles Girgio Agamben’s notion of ‘bare life’. Skou and Rømer’s carefully scripted piece manages to address underlying issues of politics, philosophy, and aesthetics that are all too relevant to our present-day circumstances of unrelenting economic crisis authoritarian drift, and rapidly failing states.
The script is written by Lise Skou and Nis Rømer in collaboration with dramaturgic Gritt Uldall-Jessen. It’s based on literary references such as: ‘On Revolution’ by Hanne Arendt, ‘The Human Condition’ by Hanne Arendt, ‘Stato di Eccezione’ by Giorgio Agamben, ‘The Coming Insurrection’ by Comité Invisible, ’Always Coming Home’ by Ursula K. LeGuin, ‘Le Noveau Monde amoureux’ by Charles Fourier, the spectacle ‘The Doss House’ by Maxim Gorkij plus Revenge of the Crystal – Selected Writings on the Modern Object and Its Destiny, 1968-1983 by Jean Baudrillard.
Performed by: Maria Gersby, Marie Andersson, Pil Josefine Cecilie Nielsen, Rosa
Sand Michelsen, Sebastian Hjort Sørensen plus Nis Rømer and Lise Skou
Directed by: Gritt Uldall-Jessen
Production year 2012-2013
Duration 25 min
Field Work / Lise Skou and Nis Rømer was formed in 2006.
The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory
by Gregory Sholette (Goodreads Author)
It’s the Political Economy, Stupid brings together internationally acclaimed artists and thinkers, including Slavoj Žižek, David Graeber, Judith Butler and Brian Holmes, to focus on the current economic crisis in a sustained and critical manner.
In sympathy with the subject matter, the book features powerful original artwork for the cover, and an internal design theme based on the movements of Goldman Sachs stock market values by activist designer Noel Douglas. What emerges is a powerful critique of the current capitalist crisis through an analytical and theoretical response and an aesthetic-cultural rejoinder. By combining artistic responses with the analysis of leading radical theorists, the book expands the boundaries of critique beyond the usual discourse.
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.