“I am interested in creating my own little world and losing myself in it.”
Omer Fast
Omer Fast (* 1972) is one of the most distinctive film and video artists of his generation. He creates narrations in his films that question the borders between one’s own and media narratives and between current and historic events. His works address the friction between documentary and fiction. The Martin-Gropius-Bau is showing seven of his projects at his first large solo exhibition in Berlin.
Shown will be: “CNN Concatenated” from 2002, “Looking Pretty for God (after G.W.)” from 2008, “5000 Feet is the Best” from 2011, “Continuity” from 2012, “Everything That Rises Must Converge” from 2013, and “Spring” from 2016 as well as a work called “August” from 2016. This film focuses on the renowned Cologne photographer August Sander (1876-1964). This new work shot in 3D is based on the life and work of Sanders. In surreal dream sequences, the artist is haunted at the end of life by the death of his son and the figures he photographed. These seven videos are connected through three constructed waiting rooms resembling those at the doctor, the airport or an official office. The artist created them for the Martin-Gropius-Bau.
In his filmic works, Fast tells stories of trauma, war, religion and relationships. It is always edited material. But nothing can be trusted: No character, no narrator, not even the most authentic seeming images. Everything is constructed. Everything that we know we believe could be entirely different. In his works, Fast, who was raised in Israel and the United States and has been living in Berlin since 2001, questions the conventions of storytelling. Omer Fast’s films are more than thought experiments or games between narration and enactment. They are simultaneously oppressive and moving.
This exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau is held as part of the programme “Immersion. Analogue Arts in the Digital Age”.
“Immersion” is a new programme of the Berliner Festspiele scheduled for three years. It regularly displays works of art which one does not face from the opposite side, but enters to become part of them - as a performance or sculpture, choreography, narrative space or virtual reality experience.
His works in the Martin-Gropius-Bau:
CNN Concatenated, 2002
18 minutes, single screen, looped
In “CNN Concatenated”, Omer Fast splices a vast amount of CNN footage: Male and female presenters, reporters and weathermen briefly flash across the screen, their sentences are fragmented to such a degree that each person only ever gets to say one word before disappearing. Edited from a database of ten-thousand clips, the words are strung together to form hurried and jerky sentences, which address the viewer directly and in very personal terms. Started in late 2000 and taking two years to complete, the work is a time capsule that shows the transformation of news coverage before, during and after September 11, 2001, while hijacking that coverage to deliver a monologue about fear and longing.
Looking Pretty for God (After G.W.), 2008
28 minutes, single screen, looped
“Looking Pretty for God” is a straight-forward documentary, in which North-American funeral directors speak about their work. 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, grief counseling, event planning, and magic. While the camera explores the largely empty funeral homes in which these men work, little children sometimes appear and explain what we’re seeing.
5000 Feet is the Best, 2011
30 minutes, single screen, looped
Originally premiered in the 52nd Venice Biennale, “5000 Feet is the Best” is based on conversations with a U.S. Predator drone operator, which were recorded in a hotel in Las Vegas. On-camera, the drone operator discussed the technical aspects of his job and his daily routine. Off-camera and off-the-record, he briefly described incidents in which the unmanned plane fired at both militants and civilians. The film fluidly moves from documentary to reenactment and fiction, weaving together the drone operator’s account along with scenes depicting crimes in and around Las Vegas.
Continuity, 2012
40 minutes, single screen, looped
Commissioned for Documenta 13, “Continuity” follows a young German soldier returning home after serving in Afghanistan. A familiar domestic environment with emotional parents soon gives way to a series of anomalies that gradually become perverse and uncanny. It remains unclear whether the couple has suffered an actual loss or if they’re performing an obsessive ritual that keeps them together. A total of three different sons spend the night at the house. Each disappears under mysterious circumstances.
