Oliver Russler’s Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies is a thematic interactive art installation that challenges the audience to look their own country’s economic policies verses another country’s economic policies; what works and what does not work is very often debatable. The piece includes interviews from people all over the world, from the United States to Mexico to Denmark and their ideas for different social and economic models. They also come from a variety of disciplines from economists to political scientists, from authors and to historians. However, they all have one thing in common; they all reject a capitalist system of rule; proving that while very often our cultures disagree on many concepts, but there are some rejections that are universal.
All of the interviews have been translated into English with the intention that Russle wanted to appeal to a more global market. On the floor and the wall near each television screen is a quote that is significant to the alternate model that is being talked about in the particular interview that is playing. It is a simple way that can introduce almost anyone from anywhere to each television screen.
This ongoing and continually developing installation has travelled to museums all over the world and is breaking down cultural barriers to continually show our global culture more ways to see how we can work together to change things. He chooses not to focus on the ways in which we are different and the concepts that only cause friction and tension.
Tara Turley-Dean