Artists
Omer Fast Born in 1972 in Jerusalem, Israel | Lives and works in Berlin
A central role in Omer Fast’s video works is his examination of the question of how experiences are transformed, stored, superimposed, augmented or suppressed, and finally shared. The starting point is usually concrete events or reports from concrete persons that Fast checks for their potential to be retold.
According to experience, his video installations, set up as multi-channel works, quite often do not allow the conventions of historical reconstruction to be converted into a coherent and easily consumable narrative. In fact, he understands the process of writing history to be an ambiguous bonding of memories, fiction and imagination.
His work,Talk Show(2009), combines the children’s game ofBroken Telephonewith a talk show format in which people relate personal experiences. A woman tells the story of her husband, his mistress, and their involvement in political conflicts in Iraq to an actor, who tells it to some one else, who, in turn, tells it to another person, etc. Through the various personalities, storytelling styles, and lapses in memory, the story changes from version to version.Talk Showillustrates in fast motion the effects of the interplay of storyteller, listener, and the medium. In this way,Talk Showalso becomes a reflection on the transmission of events through language, its necessity and failure.
Education
| 1995 | BFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA |
| 2000 | MFA Hunter College, New York, USA |
Awards
| 2009 | Preis der Nationalgalerie fĂĽr junge Kunst |
| 2008 | Kunstpreis der Whitney Biennale, New York |
Solo exhibitions (selection)
| 2011 |
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne Netherlands Media Arts Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands Herzliya Museum of Art, Herzliya, Israel |
| 2001 |
Screening, MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France The Casting, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA |
| 2009 |
Nostalgia, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Omer Fast, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland Nostalgia, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA Omer Fast, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA Omer Fast, Kunstverein Hannover |
| 2007 |
Omer Fast: The Casting, Museum of Modern Art, Mumok, Wien, Austria Godville, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA |
| 2005 |
Mixed Doubles (mit Nam June Paik), Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, USA Omer Fast: Godville, Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis, USA |
| 2004 |
ars viva, Pinakothek der Moderne, MĂĽnchen; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Main; Brandenburgischer Kunstverein (mit Jeanne Faust), Potsdam |
Group exhibitions (selection)
| 2011 | Speak, Memory, Stroom Den Haag, Netherlands |
| 2010 |
The More Things Change, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA History in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of Krakow, Krakau, Polen 5x5, Espai d’Art Contemporani, Castelló, Spain Blockbuster: Cinema of Exhibition, CIAC, Mexiko Talking Heads, Ireland Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin, Irland |
| 2009 |
Kunstpreis der Nationalgalerie fĂĽr junge Kunst, Museum Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin Actors and Extras, Argos Centre for Art and Media, BrĂĽssel, Belgien |
| 2008 |
Made Up, Liverpool Biennial International 08, Liverpool, Great Britain THE SOUL (or, Much Trouble in the Transportation of Souls), Manifesta 7, Trient, Italy The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, USA Les Inquiets, cinq artistes sous la pression de la guerre, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France |