OLAF (art project)

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OLAF (abbreviation for Organization to Solve the Foreigners Question ) was an activist, satirical art project that was launched in 2010 by Andreas Heusser , Christoph Nüssli and Christoph Oeschger with the aim of counteracting the right-wing populist campaign of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) for the deportation initiative . The project consisted of the establishment of the “Organization for the Solution of the Foreigners Question” (OLAF) and a series of actions carried out by the fictional representatives of the organization, Alois B. Stocher and his assistant George Klein.

Alois Stocher, President of OLAF, and his assistant George Klein at the "National Collection Day for Foreigners", Bundesplatz Bern, 2010

Art vs. politics

As Heusser and Nüssli explained in a TV interview, the aim was to use art to create a “counterweight to the xenophobic, multi-million dollar campaign” of the Swiss People's Party . Methods such as over-identification , provocation and parody were used to attract media attention, which served as multipliers for the project.

Ostensibly, OLAF acted as a partner organization of the Swiss People's Party ( SVP ), which with its deportation initiative wanted to automatically expel all criminal foreigners . The vote was prepared by the SVP with the controversial Schäfchenplakat campaign and a suggestive referendum, which accused it of inciting xenophobia and violating international law. OLAF went one step further: in order to tackle the problem of foreigners at the root, not only criminal foreigners should be deported, according to OLAF, but all foreigners, because only foreigners could become criminal foreigners.

In numerous propaganda videos, brochures and posters, OLAF took up elements and arguments of the SVP's populist campaign and reduced them to absurdity. Alois Stocher quickly made friends from the right-wing political spectrum on Facebook who did not see through the project as satire but were enthusiastic about Stocher's radical ideas. The OLAF website (volksbefragung.ch) copied the structure and aesthetics of the SVP's campaign website (volksbefragung.ch). Photomontages and ambiguous texts parodied the SVP's positions and brought the People's Party close to the National Socialists . As a result, the actors received massive threats from both right and left political camps who took the project and the characters at face value.

People's Liberation

In order to free the Swiss population from foreign infiltration, the OLAF website also offered an online form with which undesired foreigners could be proposed for deportation. You could follow live which foreigners received the most votes, which was shown in the form of graphic «deportation charts». The 10 foreigners with the most votes would be directly expelled every week, OLAF promised.

National collection day for foreigners

The fictional characters Alois B. Stocher and George Klein also appeared in real life. The highlight of the OLAF campaign was the so-called “National Collection Day for Foreigners” on the Bundesplatz in Bern, where a yellow container was installed to collect and deport all foreigners who the Swiss population no longer wanted in the country. There was also a stand with information material about OLAF and SVP as well as armbands (sorted according to 5 cultures) that were used for preventive identification of foreigners.

Press conference intervention and staged lawsuit

The press conference on November 9th was scheduled by the SVP to present the results of its referendum on the mood towards foreigners. When Alois B. Stocher took the stage to present the solutions to the identified problems, he was pushed out of the hall by the security staff. As a result, the SVP threatened to file a lawsuit against OLAF, as many media reported. However, this turned out to be another newspaper duck staged by OLAF.

reception

The project attracted a lot of attention at home and abroad. and was discussed controversially in online magazines and print media. The majority of the Swiss population, however, was unimpressed and voted on November 28, 2010 to accept the SVP's deportation initiative.

For a long time the project was deliberately kept anonymous in order to achieve a stronger political impact, until Andreas Heusser was involuntarily outed as Alois Stocher by a tabloid.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biting irony: As satirist populist campaigns react , SF-Kulturplatz, December 1, 2010
  2. ↑ Hehli, Simon: "People's Liberation" fighting against the SVP , view, 24 September, 2010.
  3. ↑ Gauthier, Dino: There is no crime against foreigners without foreigners , WOZ, 30 September 2010.
  4. ↑ See:
    • Many people have this idea , 20min, 8 October 2010
  5. ↑ See:
  6. ↑ Satirist shocks Switzerland with OLAF , Vorarlberg Online, November 16, 2010
  7. ↑ Reding, Philip: The complete work of Alois B. Stocher, KEH and OLAF . preding.wordpress.com, October 27, 2010
  8. ↑ See:
    • The theater about politics , NZZ am Sonntag, November 7, 2010
    • Foreigners gather on the Bundesplatz , Tages-Anzeiger, November 4, 2010
    • Deportation in detail: Alois Stocher transports foreigners into deportation containers, Radio RaBe, 8 November 2010
    • Collection day for foreigners - protest against the deportation initiative , Radio Dreyeckland, 10 November 2010
  9. ↑ Mark, collect, create , 20min, 6 October 2010
  10. ↑ The SVP now knows where the shoe pinches , Blick, November 9, 2010
  11. ↑ see:
    • Attaques du site Olaf contre l ́UDC: Christoph Mörgeli manque d ́humour, 24heures.ch, 15 November 2010
    • L ́UDC est en froid avec un site humoristique, 24heures, 15 November 2010
    • Christoph Mörgeli n ́aime pas l ́humour d ́Olaf, 20min, 15 November 2010
  12. ↑ cf.
    • Gruppe Olaf stages Mörgeli-Klage , Blick am Abend, 15 November 2010
  13. ↑ see:
    • ARD Tagesthemen , 21 November 2010
    • Black Sheep satire follows posters to limit, Worldradio, 20 November 2010
  14. ↑ see:
  15. ↑ see:
  16. ↑ Swiss vote for deportation of foreigners who commit serious crimes , The Guardian, November 29, 2010
  17. ↑ Dr. Alois Stocher , NZZ on Sunday, September 26, 2010
  18. ↑ Satire figure fools media and politicians , 20min, 16 November 2010