<nettime-ann> [Newsletter] New project: Socialism Failed, Capitalism is Bankrupt. What comes Next?

[Oliver Ressler <oliver@ressler.at>]

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SOCIALISM FAILED, CAPITALISM IS BANKRUPT. WHAT COMES NEXT?

A project by Oliver Ressler


The project “Socialism Failed, Capitalism is Bankrupt. What comes Next?” 
focuses on the political and economic situation in the Republic of 
Armenia, one of the successor states of the Soviet Union.

The project materializes in two different formats:
The 2-channel video installation, which will be presented in the 
following exhibition:

“The Workers”
MASS MoCA – Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
North Adams (USA)
May 29, 2011–Mar 15, 2012
http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=631

The short film (19 min., 2010), which will be presented at Vienna 
Independent Shorts – 8th International Short Film Festival, Vienna (A), 
Metrokino, 31.05.11, 18:00
http://viennashorts.com/de/festival/programm-2011/oew-2011/oew-3.html

The film “Socialism Failed, Capitalism is Bankrupt. What comes Next?” 
was recorded in summer 2010 in Yerevan’s largest bazaar, called 
“Bangladesh”. Every day more than 1000 people try to survive as traders 
in the “Bangladesh” bazaar, where an average vendor does not earn more 
than 100 to 250 Euros per month. In the film, the market’s traders talk 
about their struggles to survive during crises in a post-socialist state 
that closed most Soviet-era factories and dissolved social safety nets. 
The market’s traders, primarily former factory-workers, describe how 
their living conditions worsened after the end of the Soviet Union; they 
speak about their hopes and expectations for social change. While they 
live in misery, a small but highly influential class of corrupt 
politicians and super-rich oligarchs team up with international 
corporations in order to fill their pockets with profits from 
transferring state property and licenses for mining.

A former mathematics professor Levon Yeremyan, who now survives by 
trading in the “Bangladesh” bazaar, notes, “95 per cent of people work 
and get the minimum wage, which is ridiculously low by European 
standards, and 5 per cent live like Arab sheikhs.” Most people would 
definitely agree with his description of the wide gap between the 
impoverished masses and the oligarchs in Armenia. This deep divide 
contradicts the official flattering data.

In the 2-channel video installation, the “Bangladesh” video is combined 
with a (silent) video, which focuses on former Soviet factories in 
Yerevan that were shut down or produce at reduced capacity or were 
transformed into something else. Each factory was filmed with a single 
shot of 20 seconds, followed by information that includes the factory’s 
name, what it produced, when it closed, the current owner and the new 
utilization.


Concept, camera, sound recording, video editing and production: Oliver 
Ressler
Interviews, translation and editing assistance: Arpineh Galfayan
Audio mix and color correction: Rudi Gottsberger
Research on factories: Nora Galfayan, Vahe Budumyan


The project was done during a residency in Yerevan in the framework of 
the project “Eat and Work”, directed by Anna Barseghian, supported by 
Utopiana and BM:UKK

Check out the film online at http://www.ressler.at/socialism_failed/

Attachment: MASS MoCA The Workers exhibition announcement.JPG
Description: JPEG image

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