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Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Július Koller
Mark Geffriaud
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

Programme

Prochainement
Omer Fast "Nostalgia"
En cours
Archives
2010
Both Before and After
The Boy Who Cried Wolf (Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty)
Elina Brotherus, "Artists at Work"
Elina Brotherus, "Rétrospective"
2009
Deimantas Narkevicius
"Là où les eaux se mêlent"
Pratchaya Phinthong "What I learned I no longer know; the little I still know, I guessed"
"Nord, Nord-Ouest"
Roman Ondák "Fluid Border"
Ryan Gander « It’s a right Heath Robinson affair » (A stuttering exhibition in two parts)
Mark Geffriaud « Si l’on pouvait être un Peau-Rouge »
Berlin-Paris, un échange de galeries
2008
Yann Sérandour « Weiss »
Pia Rönicke & Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak «An Usual Story from a Nameless Country»
« Faces »
Jiri Kovanda «Two Cushions»
Omer Fast «De Grote Boodschap»
2007
« Cinematic Panorama »
Elina Brotherus
Pratchaya Phinthong «if I dig a very deep hole»
Julius Koller «Space is The Place»
Mac Adams «07-70»
« The Last piece By John Fare »
« Time Flies »
2006
Dominique Petitgand «Quelqu’un par terre (Someone one the ground)»
Pia Rönicke «Rosa's Letters - Telling a Story»
« Jiri Kovanda VS Reste du monde (Tentatives de Rapprochement) »
Roman Ondák «More Silent Than Ever»
« Outside The Living Room »
Deimantas Narkevicius «Instead of Today»
Omer Fast «Godville»
2005
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 3 »
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 2 »
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 1 »
Elina Brotherus «Model Studies»
2004
Pia Rönicke «Without a Name»
Loris Gréaud «Ending Introduction»
Robert Breer
Alban Hajdinaj «My Home is Your Home»
2003
« Links »
« Present Perfect »
Roman Ondák «Talker»
2002
Mac Adams «Beneath The Shadow»
Omer Fast
Deimantas Narkevicius
Dominique Petitgand
2001
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus «Suites françaises 2»
« Hors-jeu »
Foires
Art 41 Basel
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Independent
Art 40 Basel
Art Basel Miami Beach
FIAC, Paris
The Fair Gallery > Frieze Art Fair

Ailleurs

Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Mark Geffriaud
Július Koller
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

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Home
Artists

Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Mark Geffriaud
Július Koller
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

Program

Upcoming
Omer Fast "Nostalgia"
Current
Archives
2010
Both before and after
The Boy Who Cried Wolf (Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty)
Elina Brotherus "Artists at Work"
Elina Brotherus, "Retrospective"
2009
Deimantas Narkevicius
Where water comes together with other water
Pratchaya Phinthong "What I learned I no longer know; the little I still know, I guessed"
Nord, Nord-Ouest
Roman Ondák "Fluid Border"
Ryan Gander "It’s a right Heath Robinson affair" (A stuttering exhibition in two parts)
Mark Geffriaud "If one were only an Indian"
Berlin-Paris, a gallery exchange
2008
Yann Sérandour "Weiss"
Pia Rönicke & Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak "An Usual Story From a Nameless Country"
"Faces"
Jiri Kovanda "Two Cushions"
Omer Fast "De Grote Boodschap"
2007
"Cinematic Panorama"
Elina Brotherus
Pratchaya Phinthong "if I dig a very deep hole"
Julius Koller "Space is The Place"
Mac Adams "07-70"
"The Last Piece by John Fare"
"Time Files"
2006
Dominique Petitgand
Pia Rönicke "Rosa's Letters- Telling a Story"
Jiri Kovanda "Jiri Kovanda vs Reste du Monde (Tentatives de rapprochement)"
Roman Ondák "More Silent Than Ever"
"Outside The Living Room"
Deimantas Narkevicius "Instead of Today"
Omer Fast "Godville"
2005
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 3"
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 2"
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 1"
Elina Brotherus "Model Studies"
2004
Pia Rönicke "Without a Name"
Loris Greaud "Ending Introduction"
Robert Breer
Alban Hajdinaj "My Home is Your Home"
2003
"Links"
"Present Perfect"
Roman Ondák "Talker"
2002
Mac Adams "Beneath the Shadow"
Omer Fast
Deimantas Narkevicius
Dominique Petitgand
2001
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus "Suites Françaises 2"
"Hors-Jeu"
Fairs
Archives
Independent
Art 40 Basel
Art Basel Miami Beach
Fiac, Paris
The Fair Gallery > Frieze Art Fair
Art 41 Basel

Offsite

Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Mark Geffriaud
Július Koller
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

Links
Infos

Omer Fast

Biography

Presentation

Omer Fast works with sound and images. Video and television are both the tools and subjects of his work. His video installations are for gallery space and public-private venues as well.

Fast came to the United States when he was 14 years old, and his work reflects on an approach from a foreign culture. He questions the very notion of cultural references and positions himself as an outside observer trying to understand.

His works affirm the importance of language skills. The story becomes his material; Fast analyses the way each is put together, as well as the codes and contexts implied. Often working from a story that already exists such as a Hollywood blockbuster movie, he then enriches it with additional layers. In this way he is trying to make sense of the popular symbols of a predominant culture. His work shows a fascination for the ability to make something from nothing and he uses this emptiness as his material.

Biography

Omer Fast Born in 1972 in Jerusalem, Israël. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Posdam. (with Jeanne Faust)

Che Cosa Sono Le Nuvole ?, Museion - Museum of modern and contemporary art, Bolzano

Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst 2009, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

The Green Room, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on- Hudson, New York

Visite: Von Gerhard Richter bis Rebecca Horn, Kunst und Austellungshalle, Bonn

The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image/ Part II: Realisms, The Irshhorn Museum, Washington DC.

Les Inquiets, cinq artistes sous la pression de la guerre, Centre Pompidou, Paris

The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.

Decoder: Selected Works from the 3rd Contour Biennial for Video Art, Center for Contemporary Art, Vilnius

Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War, Blackwood Gallery / JM Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto

History Will Repeat Itself, Hartware Medienkunstverein, Dortmund / Travels to Kunstwerke, Berlin

Collateral, When Art looks at Cinema, Hangar Bicocca, Spacio d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan. (curated by Adelina Fürstenberg)

Cut/ Film as Found Object, Milwaukee Art Museum (curated by Stefano Basilico). travels Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa

Second Sight, Prague Biennial, Czech National Museum, Prague (curated by Nadia Fischer)

The Imaginary Number, Kunstwerke, Berlin (curated by Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg)

Reprocessing Reality. New Perspectives on Art and the Documentary, (curated by Claudia Spinelli), Château de Nyon, Nyon. TRevls to PS1, New York

Fair Use : Appropriation in Recent Film and Video, Hammer Museum, U.C.L.A, Los Angeles (curated by Matthew Thompson)

Faces in the Crowd / Volti nella Folla,Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin (curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev)

Faces in the Crowd / Volti nella Folla, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev)

Cut/Film as Found Object, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (curated by Stefano Basilico)

Film in der Kunst: Omer Fast and Jeanne Faust, Kultur Kreis Award, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam

Incommunicado, Sainsburry Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich; Edinburgh City Art Centre, Edinburgh (Traveling Exhibition organized by the Hayward Gallery)

Hidden In a Daylight, Foksal Gallery Foundation in collaboration with 3rd Annual Film Festival, Cieszyn, Poland

Kaap Helder, art from a natural source, Kunst en Cultuur Noord-Holland, Harlem

In Media Res, Information, Contre-Information, galerie Art et Essai, Université Rennes

(based upon)True Stories, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam

Breakin’ In A New Partner, M.F.A Thesis Exhibition, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York

Bibliography

Che Cosa Sono le Nuvole ? Works from the Enea Righi Collection, edition Kaleidoscope Press, Milano

2008 Biennial Exhibition Published by the Whitney Museum of American Art/Yale University Press

The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image, publié par The Hirshhorn Museum,Washington D.C. 2008

Les Inquiets: Cinq Artistes sous la Pression de la Guerre, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2008

The Greenroom, Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art, CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, Catalog, New York

The Casting, Monographie publiée par The Museum of Modern Art, Vienne et Walter König Verlag, 2008

Report (Not Annoucement), publihed by Basis voor Aktuele Kunst, edited by Binna Choi

Experience, Memory, Reenactment, edited by Anke Bangma, Steve Rushton, Florian Wüst, published by Piet Zwart Institute

Cut/Film as Found Object, Stefano Basilico, published by Milwaukee Museum of Art

Covering the Real: Art and the Press Picture, Hartwig Fischer, published by Museum of Fine Arts, Bâle

Life, Once More: Forms of Reenactment in Contemporary Art, Sven Lütticken, published by Witte de With, Rotterdam

Faces in the Crowd: Picturing Modern Life, Iwona Blazwick, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, published by Skira Editore

Beyond Form, Omar Calderon, Christine Calderon, Peter Dorsey, eds. Lusitania Press, New York

Facing Footage: Film in Art, textes par Brigitte Weingart, Jennifer Allen, Bernhart Schwenk, published by Ars Viva, Kultur Kreis der Deutschen Industrie

Cream 3: Contemporary Art in Culture, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Phaidon Press, Londres

In Media Res: Information, Contre-Information, Galerie Art & Essai, Universite Rennes

Hidden in a Daylight, Festival Era New Horizons in Ciezzyn, Gutek Film Ltd, published by Foksal Gallery.

Omer Fast: I wanna tell you something (catalogue), texts by Tracy L. Adler & Judicaël Lavrador, published by &: gb agency, Paris

Second Sight, Alumni Exhibition, published by Hunter College Art Gallery, New York

Mark Godfrey, TJ Demos, Eyal Weizman, Ayesha Hammed Rights of Passage, Tate Etc. Issue 19

James Trainor, Omer Fast, Truth Bends & Decays As It Travels, Artasiapacific, contemporary visual culture (issue 68)

Tina Wasserman, Duplicated Replications: The Interventions of Omer Fast Afterimage, Vol 37 No 5

Holland Cotter, Is it Reality or Fantasy, the Boundaries are Blurred, The New York Times, January 7th

Mary Voelz Chandler, Two Perspectives on Truth, Rocky Mountain News, September 4

Mark Godfrey, Casting Doubt: Omer Fast at the Mumok, Texte Zur Kunst, #68, décembre

Miriam Muller, Trau keinem Film trau keinen Bildern, Berliner Zeitung, 30 octobre

Omer Fast au Centre national de la Photographie, Les Inrockuptibles, février-mars

Konstanze Crüwell, Eine Nagelschere fur den Vorgarten, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 janvier

Peter Schgeldahl, Goings on about Town: Omer Fast at Postmasters New Yorker, 21-28 avril

David Deitcher, Get Real: Two contemporary Israeli artists subvert the documentary tradition, Time Out New York, 10-17 avril

Christoph Schütte, Blick aus dem Panzer Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 février

Emmanuelle Lequeux, Omer Fast: Citoyen dun Monde qui Cloche Le Monde, (Aden), 19 juin

Holland Cotter, Never Mind the Art Police, These Six Matter New York Times, 5 mai

Susan Wise, Omer Fast and Akiko Ichikawa at Momenta Art, Williamsburg, Quarterly

Press articles

Click on the underlined parts to download the texts in pdf

Jerusalem Post, english, "Not The Mishmash it seems", by Nathan Bursten, January.

Kaléidoscope , #5, english, "Foresight Into The New African Century", by Nav Haq.

Art in America, english, "Dramatic Witness : The Art of Omer Fast", by Kari Rittenbach, December.

Artforum, english, "Omer Fast UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE ", by Patricia Maloney, December.

Art e Critica, italian, "Omer Fast. A nice breaded schnitzel, On narrative and conceptualism, truth and construction, inteview by Löffelholz

Art Review, english, "Omer Fast : Nostalgia", by Laura Mac Lean-Ferris, October.

Afterall, english, "From Homer to Omer Fast", text by Elisabeth Lebovici and "Omer Fast : When Images Lie...About the Fictionality of Documents", text by Maria Muhle, March.

Flash Art, #262, english, "Omer Fast, New Magic Realism", interview by Chen Tamir, October.

Texte Zur Kunst, #68, english, "Casting Doubt: On Omer Fast at the Mumok", text by Mark Godfrey, December.

ArtPress, english / french, "Omer Fast at gb agency", text by Thierry Davila, March.

Les Inrockuptibles, #529, french, "Omer Fast à Paris", text by Claire Moulène, January 18-24.

Libération, french, "Passé Décomposé", text by Elisabeth Lebovici, January 16.

Modern Painters, english, "Omer Fast: Godville, Postmasters", text by Joshua Mack, December.

Aden (Le Monde), french, "Omer Fast : Citoyen d'un monde qui cloche", interview by Emmanuelle Lequeux, June 19-25.

Works

Nostalgia

'Nostalgia' is a new three-part film installation by Omer Fast including one film depicting a migrant from a dystopian Britain seeking asylum in Africa. Adapted from a true story, this narrative is presented alongside an extract of original footage and a dramatisation of an encounter between the artist and a person seeking asylum in Britain. Deliberately combining these disparate elements, Omer Fast confronts us with a contemporary recollection of displacement and loss in a film narrative that is set in the future but which appears to have been produced in the past.

In a west African colony increasingly hostile to Britons seeking a better life, an asylum-seeker is interrogated as to the whereabouts of a tunnel used to smuggle people into the colony. He is offered a deal by the authorities and must choose between betraying his friends and securing his future.This story was inspired by a conversation between the artist and a west African national seeking asylum in London.While not a straightforward adaptation of his experiences, the work picks up on one strand from his life story and embeds it in several scenes that repeat in each film.

'Nostalgia' enriches the discourse established in Fast's work over the past decade. Film and video work, often shown as installations on multiple screens, take contemporary issues or historic moments as their points of departure, meshing narrative, documentary and dramatic content. Contrary to first impressions, however, the primary subject matter is revealed to be the process and impact of film-making as a medium for story-telling.

What ordinarily takes place behind the scenes is here brought to the fore, the mechanics of both film-making and story-telling often contradicting one another. In the absence of evidence or witnesses, those seeking asylum must often depend on the content and delivery of their stories to secure their right to stay. Fast addresses the projection of power within an institutional context and our implication in its operations, for example as it seeks to unravel fact from fiction.

Take A Deep Breath

In the summer of 2002, Martin F. was standing outside a falafel shop in Jerusalem when it exploded. A trained medic, he went in and discovered the body of a young man on the floor. The young man had lost both legs below the waist, as well as an arm, but his eyes were open and focused. A few seconds passed while the two looked at each other. Knowing it was probably in vain, Martin F. decided to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

After a minute or two, the young man’s eyes rolled up into his head and he expired. As he walked out, Martin F. saw that a group of people had gathered, including two policemen, who wanted to know how many casualties were inside. When he responded that there was only one, Martin F. realized the young man he had just left inside was a suicide bomber.

In the film, extracts recorded from a conversation with Martin F. in 2008 alternate with fictional scenes in which a team of actors attempts to stage his ordeal for the camera.

Looking Pretty For God (After G.W.)

"Looking Pretty for God was commissioned by Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg for Manifesta 7, and by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Several months before Manifesta, Anselm told me that the working concept for the show was “the soul.” At first, I thought he was joking. When I realized there was a possibility that he was serious, I decided to take on the concept as seriously as I could, accepting it as a personal challenge. I come from a militantly secular family and don’t have the background of religious practice, spiritual beliefs or even a sense of tradition that could help in this matter. Also, unlike triggers for previous projects that were all about discrete historical events, their witnesses and reenactors, I understood the soul to be more of a ‘big’ concept, fluid but nevertheless as historically contingent as abstract concepts can get. And so, lacking a personal angle on the matter, the first step was to find people who could talk about the soul in first-person, who could explain to me what happens when a person dies. I had already talked with several clergymen of small-town churches while producing a project in Virginia in 2005. I did not want to go through those doors again. So while visiting New York for the Whitney Biennial, I lined up meetings with funeral directors in Staten Island, Manhattan and Queens, knowing that the technical nature of their jobs could anchor the conversation and keep it from dipping into territory for which I was ill-prepared. As the professionals responsible for a deceased person’s last public appearance, funeral directors’ line of work falls somewhere between make-up artistry, plastic surgery, sculpture, PR, grief counseling, event planning, and magic. Their profession is also emblematic of modernity’s specialization of production and work, and their segregation from the consuming public. As the funeral directors speak about what they do off-camera, stills fi lmed inside the funeral home are intercut with scenes depicting a commercial photo shoot involving child models. Occasionally, aspects seen in the photo shoot appear to coincide with things the funeral directors describe: the application of make-up, the proper posing of hands and face, achieving an ideal facial expression and an overall finish, the work involved in creating a memorable image. As the camera wanders around the frozen expressions and bodies, the models’ normally passive stance is occasionally interrupted as one suddenly speaks, in complete synch with the voiceover, as if channeling a voice. It’s a gimmick, obviously, but when it works it succeeds in relating two distinct industries involved in creating two very different image products. Also, in as much as a performance can possess or transform the person performing (and of course hopefully the one watching) the child-actor’s sudden break into pantomime briefl y brushes across the spiritual realm, at least as closely as I can imagine at this moment in life."

Excerpt from an interview with Chen Tamir published in Flash Art #262, October 2008

De Grote Boodschap

Filmed on-location in Mechelen, Belgium, De Grote Boodschap presents the stories of paired Flemish characters who appear to be caught in a time-warp. A stewardess and her unemployed husband, an old junkie and her caregiver, a former beatboxer and his girlfriend, a real-estate agent and a taciturn Arab. As each character attempts to understand what has happened and what is about to take place, the movement of the camera and the motivations of the other characters conspire against him/her. This particular time-warp depicts individuals locked in a conflict with time that ranges from scatological to the profound.

The Casting

The video is edited from conversations I recorded in Texas last year with a young Army sergeant who was waiting to return for his second tour in Iraq. Over several days, he told me two different stories and I chopped them up and braided them together into one. The first story takes place in Bavaria and involves a date with a German girl who's into speed and self-mutilation.

The second story takes place outside Baghdad and involves a road-side bomb and a tragic mistake. These two stories, along with bits and pieces from the rest of the interviews, were edited into a script which was given to a group of actors to interpret in a series of silent tableaux.

As an installation the work tries to deal with its subject matter in terms of pairs: Interviewee and interviewer, memory and the movies, love and death, routine and accident.

Godville

Godville is a two-channel video constructed from interviews with eighteenth-century character interpreters in Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum in Virginia, USA. The museum actually occupies the historical town that it recreates, administering to the preservation of the town‚s buildings and grounds, while training and paying its residents to act out Colonial American life.

The ten character interpreters originally interviewed for the work represent a cross-section of the town‚s resident reenactors: men and women of varying social standing and origin; democrats and republicans, property holders and day laborers, militants and housewives, part-time revolutionaries and professional slaves. All of them sat down to be interviewed in their work areas and in their work clothes, usually eighteenth-century domestic interiors and period garments. The interviews usually began in the past and in-character, with a question about what‚s going on in the town. However, subsequent questions quickly jumped around time out of the past, into the present and back making it hard to keep track of which of the interviewee‚s multiple personalities is talking at any particular moment and which particular moment in time is actually being talked about.

The video tries to clear the confusion through alchemy. By cutting and pasting, sampling and remixing the reenactors‚ words, the two tracks of each interview are synthesized into a single rambling whole. It tells the story of a town whose residents are unmoored and floating somewhere in America between the past and the present, reenactment, fiction and life.

Spielberg's List

Spielberg’s List is a synchronized video installation presented on two separate screens. This work centers on interviews with residents of Krakow, Poland, who worked as extras in the concentration camp scenes in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List”. The artist leads the viewer into a meandering mix of his interviewees’ real and imaginary lives. Discussions about the director’s selection of the extras, the scenes of death and humiliation that they enacted and their feelings about the experience create confusions between the film and the actual events, especially when it emerges that some of the extras were camp survivors. The simulacrum is completed by the revelation that the camp built for the movie has become a bigger tourist attraction than the real one in the area (Auschwitz), because it is in better shape.

Spielberg’s List is a synchronized video installation presented on two separate screens. This work centers on interviews with residents of Krakow, Poland, who worked as extras in the concentration camp scenes in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List”.

The artist leads the viewer into a meandering mix of his interviewees’ real and imaginary lives. Discussions about the director’s selection of the extras, the scenes of death and humiliation that they enacted and their feelings about the experience create confusions between the film and the actual events, especially when it emerges that some of the extras were camp survivors. The simulacrum is completed by the revelation that the camp built for the movie has become a bigger tourist attraction than the real one in the area (Auschwitz), because it is in better shape.

A Tank Translated

A Tank Tranlated compiles footage of conversations with four members of an Israeli Army tank. Each crew member was interviewed separately in his home – a year after being released from the army. Althrough conducted informally – each conversation began with a series of identical questions asking the crew member to definite what a tank is, what his assignment in the tank was, whether he was good at his assignment and why. Some time after answering these questions, the crew member would again be asked to give a definition for what is a tank. This question would be repeated several times troughout each conversation, in addition to a number of similar queries regarding what is an army, a war, an enemy, victory, defeat and so on. The conversations were conducted in hebrew, then edited and translated faithfully with running English subtitles. However – as the subtitles line the bottom of the screen in the video – whenever any word appears which signals a military context – it is quickly altered – onscreeen – into a civilian substitute. The substitutions happen quickly – leaving the direct translation of the conversation onscreen for less than a second – before the selected words are replaced and a new meaning built. Although the sentence structure and spirit of each original dialogue is preserved – the context is systematically and vivibly normalized as the new narratives takes over. And so, as each crew member speaks – his observations regarding his assignment in the tank and his role in the present reality are rebuilt into an imaginary if somewhat banal flight of fancy. Through this very inaccurate translation – the words of the interview subjects – four young men who until recently functioned as instruments of the state –are coaxed back into civilian life.

Berlin-Hura

Berlin-Hura tries to draw together two separate landscapes-two parcels of land- one in the Mitte section of Berlin-the other in the Negev desert of Israel- by unpacking the history that uniquely connects them. In a sequence of views presented on three monitors, the near- stillness of the paired landscapes is routinely interrupted by the motion of humans - by planes, trains, pedestrians, camels and cars- and by a third element: an elderly woman who sits in another space- inside her appartment in Tel Aviv- and describes what’s being seen. Her descriptions arrive in installments. They range from what she remembers about these landscapes and what she knows about them to what she thinks is their future and what their pairing could mean. The narrative that slowly emerges from these descriptions- the history that connects the two landscapes- is a personal story that is coherent but full of contradictions. It is shaped by the motion of humans through land and the forced displacement of people. The imperfections of a narrative and a memory- the small contradictions of the storyteller - the resistance of two parcels of land to permanent building and ownership-become emblematic of a larger paradox that runs through the life of a nation.

CNN Concatenated

CNN Concatenated personalizes the non-stop news narratives by remixing its ingredients – the words spoken by news presenters – into composite monologues. The monologues are drawn from a ten-thousand word database compiled from recording of anchors and commentator who appear on the netork. And while this dictionary could provide the vocabulary for an endless number of thouts and distinct sentences, the speech that results reflects a decidedly presonal – albeit highly impressionable – mode of expression. If there is a speaking subject behind the monologues it is a voice that attempts to fill-in what the news stream falls to relieve and even exploits – more then the need to know and understand, but rather the need to feel and experience. To have a stable context from which to make sense of the information. To have memory. To have community. To have intimacy. To act. To escape. To have silence and rest. To have meaning.

T3-AEON

Glendive Foley

Glendive Foley is a synchronized video installtion presented on two separate monitors. A series of self-produced sound effects are juxtaposed against the broad inventoru of residential façades shot on location in the country’s smallest Television market in Glendive, Montana. One monitor catalogs house after house, blank façade after blank façade, as they might be seen by a particularity patient and thorough flaneur. The other monitor contains a grid of smaller inset frames in which up to six simultaneous recordings can be seen. In each recording an attempt is made to orally reproduce one several sounds typical to the suburbs : birds, cars, dogs, lawnmowers, insects and wind. By recombining this narrow range of facsimiles, a new soundtrack is created that tries to echo the ordered ambience of the suburban experience but which is also compromised by the limits of one throat. The two channels are presented synchronously and simultaneously across from each other.