Middle East & Africa

Omer Fast

A Tank Translated

2002

Omer Fast, A Tank Translated, 2002. Video Installation.

In A Tank Translated, Omer Fast probes the feelings experienced by young people involved in an acts of war. Four monitors installed in the form a chariot of war relay the words and faces of four young Israeli soldiers. The installation shows a young generation confronted by the reality of danger, whether being attacked or facing death. The external situation of war lies is in parallel with their inner thoughts of the soldiers who fear a possibility of error in their actions. The intensity of the situation is not revealed by disaster shots nor depictions of ruins, but rather is revealed through their expressions. Fast questions the words used to translate this experience by tweaking lightly the subtitles of their testimonies, and therefore creates a shift of meaning and implied subtext.

Through video and multi-channel installations, Omer Fast enters the lives of individuals, merging personal stories and collective history, in a constant tension between reality and fiction. Fast is fascinated by the cinematographic exploration of liminal figures and professional roles, portrayed while evoking discourses arising from contemporary political and social events, like war and marginalisation. In his technically sophisticated HD videos, Fast shows a particular interest in provoking a ‘productive disorientation’ in the viewer by means of creating doubles, loops and repetitions. But even these loops and repetitions are somehow disrupted, by adding surreal images and special effects that remind the viewer of the need for a certain practice of attention, to solve narrative plots full of hints and intentions but with rare moments of closure.

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Omer Fast A Tank Translated

Omer Fast

A Tank Translated