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Omer Fast

Biography

Biography

Omer Fast

Né à / Born in Jérusalem, Israël, 1972.

Vit et travaille à / Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Solo shows / Expositions personnelles

2012

Omer Fast, Herzliya Museum of Art, Herzliya

Omer Fast, Henie Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden

Omer Fast, The Power Plant, Toronto

Omer Fast, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus

2011

Omer Fast, Model Art Center, Sligo

Omer Fast, Hordaland Art Centre, Bergen

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln

Netherlands Media Arts Institute, Amsterdam

Herzliya Museum of Art, Herzliya

La Caixa, Barcelona

2010

Omer Fast, gb agency, Paris

Talk Show, Berlin Documentary Forum, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Screening: MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Omer Fast, ARRATIA, BEER, Berlin

Screening: Ithaca University, NY

The Casting, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

2009

The Casting, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis

Nostalgia, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Omer Fast, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel

Nostalgia, South London Gallery, London

Nostalgia, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley

Omer Fast, Postmasters Gallery, New York

Omer Fast: Looking Pretty for God (After G. W.), Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, N Y

Omer Fast: Talk Show, Performa, New York

Omer Fast, Lunds Konsthall, Lund2008

Omer Fast: Looking Pretty for God (After G. W.), Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, MN

Galerija Miroslav Karlijevic, Zagreb

Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver

Omer Fast, De Groote Boodschap, gb agency, Paris

Omer Fast, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover

2007

Omer Fast, Arratia, Beer, Berlin

Omer Fast: The Casting, Museum of Modern Art, Mumok, Vienna

Godville, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis

Omer Fast, Contemporary Art Center, image contemporaine, Montreal

2006

Godville, gb agency, Paris.

2005

Mixed Doubles (with Nam Jun Paik), Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh

Postmasters Gallery, New York

Omer Fast: Godville, International Institute for Visual Arts, INIVA, London

Omer Fast: Godville, Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis

2004

Omer Fast, L’Atelier /CNP, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris

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

Spielberg’s List, Liste 04, gb agency, Basel

2003

Fiktion oder Realität?, Fri-Art, Center for Contemporary Art, Fribourg

Postmasters Gallery, New York

Omer Fast: A Tank Translated, Project Room, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt

2002

A Tank Translated, Fiac Perspectives, gb agency, Paris

Omer Fast, gb agency , Paris

Group shows /Expositions personnelles :

2011

Speak, Memory, Stroom Den Haag, Den Haag

2010

Highlights from the Kunstfilm Biennale, Kunstwerke, Berlin

New Vision programme, Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX, Copenhagen

In What We Trust, Art Miami, Miami

51st October Salon…the night pleases us…, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade

The more things change, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

History in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of Krakow, Krakow

A Million and One Days, Lithuanian National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

Forbidden Love, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz

Cultures of the Copy, Edith Russ Haus, Oldenburg/Goethe Institut, Hong Kong

5x5, Espai d’Art Contemporani, Castello

Videodrome, Autocenter, Berlin

Blockbuster: Cinema of Exhibition, CIAC, Mexico

Hinter der vierten Wand, Generali Foundation, Wien

Talking Heads, Ireland Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin

Auto Kino, temporare Kunsthalle, Berlin

Che Cosa Sono Le Nuvole, Museion, Bolzano

2009

Prize 2009 of the National Gallery, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

Polyglottolalia Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm

Medium Religion, Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Ireland

New Frontiers, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah

The Same River Twice. Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

De l’interpretation, Zoo Galerie, Nantes

V.O.S.T. OV/OT, iMAL, Bruxelles.

The Eye in the Door, Kunsthalle Nikolaj, Copenhagen

Actors and Extras, Argos Centre for Art and Media, Brussels

2008

Equivalence: Acts of Translation in Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Present Tense, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderna, Las Palmas.

Made Up, Liverpool Biennial International 08, Liverpool

Medium Religion, ZKM/ Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe

On the Subject of War, Barbican, Londres

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

THE SOUL (or, Much Trouble in the Transportation of Souls), Manifesta 7, Trento

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

The Whitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum, New York

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

Biennale Cuvée, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz

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

Lügen nirgends, Ausstellungshalle Zeitgenösische Kunst, Münster

Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War, Blackwood Gallery / JM Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto; Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal,

Wandering in Contemporary Videoart, Magazzini del SaleMusei Civici, Siena

Pick - up, Stunck Kunstencentrum, Leuven

2007

Filmische Wahrheiten-Cinematic Realities Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg

The Colonial Show, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia

Mystic Truths, Auckland Art gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

Decoder, Contour Video Biennale, Mechelen

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

Closed Circuit: New Media Acquisitions, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Visite: Contemporary Art in Germany, Center for Fine Arts, Brussels

Cross- Border, Museum of Art, Stuttgart

Re-, Site Gallery, Sheffield

Collateral, When Art looks at Cinema, Hangar Bicocca, Spacio d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan

Raised by Wolves, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

2006

We All Laughed at Christopher Columbus, Platform Garanti, Istanbul

Simulation Games, Edith Russ House, Oldenburg

I, Direct Ontology, Futura Gallery, Prague travelling to Secession, Vienna

Why Pictures Now : New Media Acquisitions, Mumok,Vienna

Mercury in Retrograde, De Appel, Amsterdam

2005

Cut / Film as Found Object, Milwaukee Art Museum travels Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa

Narrow Focus, Tranzit, Bratislava

Second Sight, Prague Biennial, Czech National Museum, Prague

The Imaginary Number, Kunstwerke, Berlin

Reprocessing Reality. New Perspectives on Art and the Documentary, Château de Nyon, Nyon, travels to PS1, New York

Covering the Real, Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Fair Use : Appropriation in Recent Film and Video, Hammer Museum, U.C.L.A,Los Angeles.

Life: Once More, Witte de With, Rotterdam

2004

Faces in the Crowd / Volti nella Folla, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, Londres; traveling to Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Torino in 2005

Cut/Film as Found Object, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami

Pick up, Public, Paris

Voluntary Memory, Austrian Cultural Forum, London

Rear View Mirror, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

Moving Picture Desire, Busan Biennale, Busan

Storytelling, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York

Facing Footage, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt

Video X, Momenta Art, Brooklyn

2003

Works from the Collection, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel

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)

Gestes d’attention, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse

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

Recent Acquisitions, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

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

Media Field: politick, Williams College Museum of Art, Willimastown, MA

Arcadia, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth

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

Contemporary Art/Recent Acquisitions, Jewish Museum, New York

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

Pol.i.tick, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

Voir Grand/Think Big, Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts, Montreal

2002

Inside-Out, 5th Festival of New Art in Berlin, Berlin

Monitor: Video II, Gagosian Gallery, New York

LISTE 02, The Young Art Fair, gb agency, Basel

Here and Now, Büro Friedrich, Berlin

While U Wait, MOT, London

Submerge, New art from NY, Kunstbunker Nürnberg, Nuremberg

Whitney Biennial 2002, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Second Site, Alumni Exhibition, Hunter College MFA Gallery, New York

2001

Video Jam, Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach

Affinités Narratives, gb agency, Paris

Weak Architecture, Midway Initiative Gallery, St. Paul, MN

Travelling Scholars, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hors- Jeu, gb agency, Paris

Salad Days, Bill Maynes Gallery, New York

Some New Minds, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York

Death Race 2000, Thread Waxing Space, New York

2000

Momenta Art Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (with Akiko Ichikawa)

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

Bibliography

Bibliography

Livres et catalogues (sélection)

2011

Medium Religion, ZKM/center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and Verlag der Buchhandlung WaltherKönig, Köln Aschemünder, Sammlung Goetz at Haus der Kunst, Hatje Cantz Verlag

2010

A Million and One Days, Lithuanian Art Museum

In Memory: Omer Fast, The Green Box, Berlin

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

Un pays supplémentaire, Pascale Cassagneau, Editions Beaux Arts de Paris

The Art of Tomorrow, Distanz

2009

Omer Fast, Editions Lunds Konsthall

2008

Catalogue Manifesta, Bolzano

Omer Fast, text by Matthias Michalka, Mumok, Walter König Editions

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

2007

Book Future Amnesia, Pascale Cassagnau, Isthme éditions, Paris

Mystic Truths (catalogue), Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

2006

Why Pictures Now, Mumok, Vienne and Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nurnberg

Report (Not Annoucement), publié par Basis voor Aktuele Kunst, édité par Binna Choi

2005

Godville, Midway Contemporary Art and Revolver Verlag

Experience, Memory, Reenactment, édité par Anke Bangma, Steve Rushton, Florian Wüst, publié par Piet Zwart Institute

Cut/Film as Found Object, Stefano Basilico, publié par Milwaukee Museum of Art

Second Sight, Prague Biennale, publié par the National Galerie, Prague

The Imaginary Number Anselm Franke, publié par Kunstwerke, Berlin

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

Reprocessing Reality, par Claudia Spinelli, Château de Nyon

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

2004

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

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

2003

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

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

Incommunicado, publié par Hayward Gallery, Londres

Fast Forward: Media Art, Sammlung Goetz publié par Ingvild Goetz, Munich

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

Printemps de Septembre : Gestes, publié par Actes Sud, Toulouse

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

2002

Insideout, Fifth Festival of Contemporary Art, Berlin

Omer Fast: I wanna tell you something (catalogue), textes par Tracy L. Adler & Judicaël Lavrador, publié par &: gb agency, Paris

Second Sight, Alumni Exhibition, publié par Hunter College Art Gallery, New York

Biennial 2002, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Presse (sélection)

2011

Barbara Pollack, True Lies? , ART News (February)

2010

Emmanuelle Lequeux, Omer Fast, Le Monde (Oct 11th)

Frédéric Bonnet, Interview avec Omer Fast, Le Journal des Arts (Oct 22nd)

Laurent Boudier, Omer Fast: Nostalgia, Telerama (Sept 29th)

Christy Lange, ‘Shooting Gallery’, Frieze Magazine, Issue 132, Summer

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

Andreas Schlaegel, ‘Nothing But the Truth’, Programma Magazine, Spring

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

Claudia Wahjudi, Omer Fast: Talk Show Zitty Magazine, Berlin, May

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

Nav Haq, Foresight into the New African Century, Kaleidoscope #5 (feb)

Joseph Wolin, Omer Fast, Nostalgia Time Out New York, February 4-10

Kevin McGarry, Subliminal Hypothesis Rhizome, February Issue, 2020

Shane McAdams, Omer Fast Brooklyn Rail, February Issue, 2010

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

2009

Kari Rittenbach, Dramatic Witness: The Art of Omer Fast Art in America

Carly Berwick, The Truth Is Out There New York Magazine, December 14-28

Emily Stokes, Performa 09, New York Financial Times, Nov 17

Joshua Mack, Performa 09: Omer Fast, Talk Show, Art Review, nov

Patricia Maloney, Omer Fast, Artforum critic , nov

Elisabeth Lebovici / Maria Muhle, Omer Fast, Afterall, mars

Barbara Casavecchia, Omer Fast, Redacting, Mousse Magazine

Eva Scharrer, Omer Fast im Kunsthaus Baselland, Kunstbulletin, March

Kristina Tieke, ‘Omer Fast’, Artist Kunstmagazin, issue 78

Jens Bisky, ‘ Wenn ein Europäer in Afrika um Asyl bittet’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Sept 11

Kate Green, ‘De Grote Boodschap in Museum Contemporary Art, Denver’, ArtInfo, January

Leigh Markopoulos, “Nostalgia/Matrix 230” Art Practical, Issue #4

Skye Sherwin, “Omer Fast at South London Gallery” Time Out London, November 6

Marcus Verhagen, “Pleasure & Pain: Omer Fast” Art Monthly, Issue #330, October

‘Back to the Present’ Interview in Displayer #3

‘Missing in Action’ William Pym, Art Asia Pacific, November/December

Jennifer E. Quick, “The Dialectics of Time” Trajectories, Art Gallery/University of Maryland

Joey Anderson, “Of Coffins and Kids” Cornell Daily Sun, October 20

2008

Sarah Rosenbaum-Kranson, Interview Omer Fast, Museo

Philippe Reigner, Imagine, Journal des Arts, October

Chen Tamir, Omer Fast, New Magic Realism, Flash Art 114, October

Adrian Searle, Cowpokes and Yetis, The Guardian, September 23

Charlotte Higgins, Liverpool Biennial: A Patchy Event, Guardian, September 19

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

Astrid Mania, Omer Fast, The Casting, ArtReviews , January

Naoko Kaltschmidt, Wiederholung und Widerhall, issue 16 www.textem.de

Sean James Rose, Incertains Regards, Libération, 19 février

Thomas Seifert, Irak-Krieg, Kunst und Realität, Die Presse, 4 janvier

Bert Rebhandel, Omer Fast, Frieze, avril

Blake Gopnik, Indelible Impressions, Washington Post, mars

Tom Holert, Attention Span, Artforum, février

Astrid Mania, Omer Fast, The Casting, ArtReviews, janvier

Rainer Bellenbaum, Change of Dispositif III, Camera Austria

Guillaume Désanges, Omer Fast, Exit, février

Joanna Fiduccia, Omer Fast, Critics Pick Artforum, avril

Peter Schjeldahl, Lessness, The Withney Biennial, The New Yorker, 17 mars

Blake Gopnik, Indelible Impressions, Washigton post, 7 mars

Bert Rebhandel, Back, Frieze, avril

Joanna Fiduccia, A Multiple Eye, UOVO #17, avril-juin

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The Reanimator Omer Fast's, Virtualrealities

Frank Westermeyer, The Casting, Schnitt Film Magazine, #48

2007

Omer Fast im MUMOK, Kunst-Bulletin, décembre

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

Dominikus Muller, Ohne Drehschluss, Artnet, 6 novembre

Dominik Kamalzadeh, Narben der Erinnerung, Der Standard, 19 octobre

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

2006

Simon Rees, Omer Fast à gb agency, Art US, #13, mai/juin

Mark Godfrey, Making History, Frieze, mars/avril

Thierry Davila, Omer Fast à gb agency, ArtPress, mars

Carly Berwick Penguins, Lies and Videotape, Artnews, février

Alexandre Quoi, Omer Fast: Godville, ParisArt, février

Claire Moulène, Omer Fast à Paris, Les Inrocktibles 18-24 janvier

Elisabeth Lebovici, Passé Décomposé, Libération, janvier

Joshua Mack, Omer Fast: Godville, Modern Painters, janvier

2005

Nav Haq, Omer Fast Godville, Bidoun, décembre

Emily Hall, Omer Fast at Postmasters, Artforum, décembre

Brian Boucher, Omer Fast à Postmasters, Art in America, décembre

Eliza Williams, Omer Fast à InIVA, Londres, ArtReview, décembre

Daniel Baird, Godville, The Brooklyn Rail, novembre

Holland Cutter, Omer Fast à Postmasters, New York Times, 7 octobre

Rachel Withers, The Fast Lane, The New Statesman, 3 octobre

Bill ODriscoll, Tell A Vision Pittsburgh, City Paper, 14 septembre

Sven Lütticken, Gated History, Texte Zur Kunst, Volume 59, septembre

Ruth Lopez, Fresh Revisions, Time Out / Chicago, 21-28 juillet

Ulrich Gutmair, Macht nur soviel Ihr Könnt, Netzeitung, 2 août

Mary Abbe, Below the Radar, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, 27 mai

Peter Campbell, At the Whitechapel Londres, Review of Books, #27, 6 janvier

2004

Simon Gould, Voluntary Memory, Contemporary, #70, décembre

Omer Fast, Contemporary Visual Arts #61, mars

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

Jüdicaël Lavrador, La vidéo mode d'emploi, Journal du CNP, février

Sandra Danicke, Was wahr sein könnte, Frankfurter Rundschau, 4 février

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

2003

Felicity Lunn, Fiction or Reality, Artforum, décembre

Jennifer Ostrower, Omer Fast à Postmasters, Art in America, octobre

Anke Kempkes, Hidden in Daylight, Frieze #78, octobre

Jennifer Allen, Openings: Omer Fast Artforum, septembre

Chris Chang, Vision: Omer Fast Film Comment, juillet/août

Brian Boucher, History, Memory, Fiction Published online bbs.thing.net, mai

Rachel Stevens, Omer Fast at Postmasters Flash Art, mai/juin

Roberta Smith, Omer Fast at Postmasters New York Times, 18 avril

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

Régis Durand, (based upon) true stories, Art Press, avril

Silvia Rottenberg, Based upon true stories, De Witte Raaf, N°102, mars/avril

Silke Hohmann, Wenn ich Soldat bin Frankfurter Rundschau, 19 février

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

Jan Braet, De wereld ligt open, Knack Weekblad, n°7, 12 février

Stéphane Roussel, Aux frontières du réel, D Letzenbuerger Land 7, février

Karin van Kooten, Een volle tank, NIW 22, Cultuur, 7 février

Whitney Biennial 2002: American Blandstand, Village Voice, 14 mars

2002

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

Charlotte Laubard, Think Fast, Technikart (Paris) issue 64, juillet-août

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

Holland Cotter, Art in Review: Second Site New York Times, 21 mars

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

2001

Holland Cotter, Art in Review : Some New Minds, NY Times, 23 février

2000

Ken Johnson, Death Race, New York Times, 22 décembre

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

Downloadable press articles

Click on the underlined parts to download the texts in pdf

Press (selection)

2010

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

Rhizome, Kevin McGarry, “Subliminal Hypothesis”, February Issue, 2020

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

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

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

Programma Magazine, Andreas Schlaegel, ‘Nothing But the Truth’, Spring

2009

Art in America, Kari Rittenbach, “Dramatic Witness: The Art of Omer Fast”

New York Magazine, Carly Berwick, “The Truth Is Out There”, December 14-28

Art Practical, Leigh Markopoulos, “Nostalgia/Matrix 230”, Issue #4

Flash Art, english, "Special Project : Omer Fast", by Nicola Trezzi; October.

Art Monthly, english, "Pleasur and Pain", by Marcus Verhagen, October.

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.

Mousse Magazine, english, "Omer Fast : redacting", text by Barbara Casavecchia.

2008

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

UOVO, #17, english, "A Multiple'I'", interview by Joanna Fiduccia, April-June.

Artforum, english, "Attention Span", text by Tom Holert, February.

2007

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

2006

Art US, #13, english,"Omer Fast at gb agency", text by Simon Rees, May-June.

Frieze, english, "Making History", text by Mark Godfrey, March-April.

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.

2005

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

Bidoun, english, "Omer Fast : Godville", text by Nav Haq, December.

Artforum, english, "Omer Fast, Postmasters", text by Emily Hall, December.

2003

Artforum, english, "Openings : Omer Fast", text by Jennifer Allen, September.

2002

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

Works

Her Face Was Covered (Part 2)

Her Face Was Covered (Part 1)

5,000 Feet is the Best

The Forlorn Loverʼs Guide to the Underground and to Doubles

The Forlorn Lover’s Guide to the Underground and to Doubles is the first ever non-video installation by Omer Fast. It includes more than forty items: texts, photos, drawings, photocopies and documents. The rhizomic placement of the elements is designed around Omar al-Gougle, the central character of a story with multiple entry points. Different narratives are intertwined, cross over and even contradict one another. If the totality of the stories produces a closed loop system, the images and illustrations present openings to different perspectives.

From the ‘Tomb of the Patriarchs’ in Hebron to Edison’s ‘camera obscura’, the viewer is caught in a maze of data, both real and fictional. There is a current of rumor throughout the installation: a successful writer, Omar al-Gougle has allegedly killed himself following the appearance of a bad review of his latest book. An attack by members of a group known as ‘The Wheatherman’— which has appeared in another work by the artist — is oddly linked to Hollywood through the actor Dustin Hoffman. The activism of the 1970s brushes up against today’s terrorism in the Middle East.

Talk Show

Originally recorded live in front of an audience for Performa 09 in New York, ‘Talk Show’ combines the familiar childhood game of Telephone with the confessional talk-show format. In a theatrical setting, invited guests recounted personal memories with direct links to current global events and the projection of power and freedom. While the guest talks, an actor listens on the stage and repeats the story from memory as soon as the guest is

finished. While the first actor talks, another actor/actress arrives and listens to the story, also for the first time, and repeats what he/she heard, albeit from the actor. This repeats six times, allowing the audience to see how an individual's first-hand memory is told and retold by a group of strangers. The unscripted story is transformed from individual memory to communal recitation, from an intimate story of tragedy into a comedy of sex and identity.

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.

There are two cameras shooting simultaneously.

Each shoots a different view.

Omer Fast

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."

Omer Fast

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.

Omer Fast

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.

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.

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.

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Publications

In Memory 1 (Zur Erinnerung 1)

Omer Fast: The Casting

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