The Desert Lives

Toplocentrala presents the first event of the parallel programme of the exhibition 'Standing Voices' on14.05.2025 - 18:00 h at the 'Earth and Man' National Museum. ↙

The Desert Lives

A film by Oliver Ressler
4K, 55 min., AT 2022

Artist talk and film screening with the author

The time for gentle demands to those in power and the attempt to achieve change through demonstrations seems to be over. As governments globally fail in shutting down climate-destructive operations, millions of people determined to prevent total planetary climate collapse are joining the climate justice movements and collectively take action. There were waves of mass civil disobedience in the past few years, and we will see more of it attempting to shut down coal mines, construction sites for LNG terminals, airports and harbors. 

In his films, Oliver Ressler has followed the climate justice movements for years. He shows events of mass civil disobedience and how the movements organize. His work questions the widespread habit of treating “art” and “activism” as distinct categories, when in practice they often overlap and cannot be separated. 

In September 2021 climate activists blocked the building machinery next to Vienna’s metro station to stop construction of the Lobau freeway and the “Stadtstraße” (city road). This film follows the occupation “desert” over five months. The environmental movement Lobau bleibt was subjected to multiple forms of repression. The film “The Desert Lives” (55 min., 2022) is structured around three on-camera discussions in October 2021, December 2021 and January 2022, in which action participants debate the status and prospects of the occupation. A three-floor wooden pyramid was built by the activists, an iconic structure for the resistance of this movement, and destroyed by the police on February 1, 2022. 48 activists were arrested, and the felling of hundreds of trees began.

About the artist

Oliver Ressler produces installations, projects in public space, and films on economics, democracy, climate breakdown, racism, forms of resistance and social alternatives. He has completed forty-three films that have been screened in thousands of events of social movements, art institutions and film festivals. Ressler had comprehensive solo exhibitions at MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; SALT Galata, Istanbul; LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Museo Espacio, Aguascalientes, Mexico and Belvedere 21, Vienna. He has participated in 480 group exhibitions, including Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the biennials in Prague, Seville, Moscow, Taipei, Lyon, Gyumri, Venice, Athens, Quebec, Helsinki, Jeju, Kyiv, Gothenburg, Stavanger, Istanbul and at Documenta 14, Kassel, 2017. www.ressler.at

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Standing Voices

Exhibition by Alexander Lazarkov, Alla Georgieva, Valentina Sciarra, Volodiya Kenarev, Dina Stoev, Ivo Bistrichki, Kamen Stoyanov, Krasimira Butseva, Roberto Andreev, Svetlozar Lisichkov, Snejanka Mihaylova, Stoyan Dechev and Olivia Mihălţianu, Tsenko Kolev, Youlian Tabakov

Curated by Vladiya Mihaylova

👉 Exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of the State Cultural Institute

🗓 08.05 - 31.05.2025

📍 At the Cube Gallery & 'Earth and Man' National Museum

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📸 Oliver Ressler, “The Desert Lives”, 4K video, 55 min., 2022. Courtesy of the artist; àngels barcelona; The Gallery Apart, Rome © Bildrecht, Vienna for Oliver Ressler.