Keren Cytter
27 Feb - 10 Apr 2010
KEREN CYTTER
Cross.Flowers.Rolex.
February 27 - April 10, 2010
We are proud to announce the third solo exhibition of Israeli artist Keren Cytter (*1977) at our gallery! For the first time in Switzerland, Cytter presents her new three channel video installation Cross.Flowers.Rolex. In addition, a wide range of previous films is available for private viewing. A selection of drawings completes the exhibition. In their digitalized esthetic, these works on paper allude to motifs and slogans of film and advertising industries.
Keren Cytter first displayed her video installation Cross.Flowers.Rolex at the exhibition taking place at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin on occasion of the award Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2009. The basic concept of the videos is based on several shocking internet “news”. According to these reports, three uncanny incidents occurred beginning of 2009: a woman is shot in the head only to get up and calmly serve tea, a man jumps out of the fifth-story window of a skyscraper twice but survives, a third person is supposedly murdered openly in the street with “eleven knife stabs in five seconds”.
Cytter let these sensationalistic reports be re-enacted by actors, focusing on the theatrical staging instead of veiling it. Accordingly, the videos are characterized by an experimental narrative style similar to her prior works. Cytter analyzes the consequences of a society under constant infiltration of mass media by investigating how strongly our patterns of behavior and private relationships relate to cinema-stereotypes. Her films masterfully play with – and on – the clichés of violence and death we have assimilated from TV and cinema. Cytter, an author in her own right, wrote the screenplay, which reveals the major mass media impact on our everyday language. Accompanied by stirring soundtracks by Thomas Myrmel and Ferrante and Teicher, these films turn the original stories into poetic, surreal tales.
Characteristic for Cytter’s work is the interplay between fact and fiction, the overlapping of reality and fantasy. The incidents are fragmented into small pieces and scattered throughout all three films – just like the mirror shards and glass slivers appearing again and again. Rather than depicting real events, these videos are meant to be allegories of human emotions and metaphors of our daily drama and social disintegration. This installation can be regarded as yet another part of Cytter’s ongoing investigation of the influence of ever-present media culture on interpersonal relationships.
Cross.Flowers.Rolex.
February 27 - April 10, 2010
We are proud to announce the third solo exhibition of Israeli artist Keren Cytter (*1977) at our gallery! For the first time in Switzerland, Cytter presents her new three channel video installation Cross.Flowers.Rolex. In addition, a wide range of previous films is available for private viewing. A selection of drawings completes the exhibition. In their digitalized esthetic, these works on paper allude to motifs and slogans of film and advertising industries.
Keren Cytter first displayed her video installation Cross.Flowers.Rolex at the exhibition taking place at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin on occasion of the award Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2009. The basic concept of the videos is based on several shocking internet “news”. According to these reports, three uncanny incidents occurred beginning of 2009: a woman is shot in the head only to get up and calmly serve tea, a man jumps out of the fifth-story window of a skyscraper twice but survives, a third person is supposedly murdered openly in the street with “eleven knife stabs in five seconds”.
Cytter let these sensationalistic reports be re-enacted by actors, focusing on the theatrical staging instead of veiling it. Accordingly, the videos are characterized by an experimental narrative style similar to her prior works. Cytter analyzes the consequences of a society under constant infiltration of mass media by investigating how strongly our patterns of behavior and private relationships relate to cinema-stereotypes. Her films masterfully play with – and on – the clichés of violence and death we have assimilated from TV and cinema. Cytter, an author in her own right, wrote the screenplay, which reveals the major mass media impact on our everyday language. Accompanied by stirring soundtracks by Thomas Myrmel and Ferrante and Teicher, these films turn the original stories into poetic, surreal tales.
Characteristic for Cytter’s work is the interplay between fact and fiction, the overlapping of reality and fantasy. The incidents are fragmented into small pieces and scattered throughout all three films – just like the mirror shards and glass slivers appearing again and again. Rather than depicting real events, these videos are meant to be allegories of human emotions and metaphors of our daily drama and social disintegration. This installation can be regarded as yet another part of Cytter’s ongoing investigation of the influence of ever-present media culture on interpersonal relationships.