Alter///scrinium. 10 Theses Of The Architecture. Screening Part 2011
Oliver Croy and Oliver Elser. Counter Communities

  • Director: Oliver Croy and Oliver Elser

    Oliver Croy
    Born in 1970 in Kitzbuhel (Austria). Educated as an artist, he now works in Berlin.

    Oliver Elser
    Born in 1972 in Russelsheim (Germany). From 2007 onwards curator at Deutsches Architektur-
    museum (DAM). Elser studied Architecture in Berlin. He has worked as an architecture critic for
    newspapers and magazines.

    Selected personal exhibitions:
    2005 — Counter-Communities Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
    2003 —  Counter-Communities (& O. Elser), Büro Friedrich, Berlin
    2002 — Sondermodelle (& O. Elser), Museum im Bellpark, Kriens, Switzerland

    Selected group exhibitions:
    2006 — Wild Men in the Looking Glass, Art 2102, Los Angeles
    2005 — groupshowboard, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Austria
    2004 — Territories, Konsthall Malmö

2003,  40 min.
Section:
Alter///scrinium. 10 Theses Of The Architecture. Screening Part

Courtesy of Artists

The 60-70s of the last century were the time of fragmentary historical reinstatement of leftist political trends that stimulated appearance of resistance movement. At that time some special protest techniques were created that could symbolize an escape from the authority of neoliberal management systems. At the same time some countries organized settlements with a new approach to social life arrangement.

Oliver Croy and Oliver Elser’s movie is a journey into the world of alternative social organization, revealed mostly by their attention to original architectural projects isolated from official aesthetic discourse. Initially the authors who were attracted to unique architectural projects with implementation of eco-friendly ideas, found out that each of five settlements, they had visited, had a social model that renounced well-known social conflicts.

Directors use their logically organized documentary to introduce their audience to formerly unknown aesthetic protest types by stepping into the territory of an alternative, extremely individualized artistic vision. By declaring not only freedom of creative expression, but a possibility of informal lifestyle creation, such projects embody another reality that goes beyond traditional way of thinking.