From a distance, the fonts forming the large-scale text Property Will Cost Us the Earth – a work by Oliver Ressler – look irregular, grey. Coming closer, drawings of animals appear: the letters themselves consist of ink drawings of hundreds of threatened species of wildlife. All mammals, birds, fish, amphibia, reptiles and insects shown are endangered. The graphic images of Property Will Cost Us the Earth lay bare a graphic truth. Humanity has already reached a phase known to scientists as the Sixth Mass Extinction. 

The ink drawings bear witness to the variety of life at risk, all soon to be in catastrophic danger if we let capital carry on business as usual. The title Property Will Cost Us the Earth comes from the book How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021), in which Andreas Malm shows that capital is responsible for the destruction of life and livelihood in an overheated world. Malm advocates for a new wave of resistance against the production of new CO2-emitting devices; investments must be written off. Yet no government on Earth dares to limit property rights. This, writes Malm, is why it must be ethically legitimate to seize property by means of sabotage and destruction. 

Premiere: Parco Arte Vivente, 2023 (IT)
Part of Re-Imagine Europe – New Perspectives for Action. Co-funded by the European Union.
This work is available for touring.
For further enquiries, contact: info@parcoartevivente.it