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Middle East & Africa

Omer Fast
De Grote Boodschap

Omer Fast’s De Grote Boodschap is based on a temporal loop in which the stories of several duets coexist and interfere with each other. The narrative articulates itself around four key moments or four neighboring apartments that the viewer discovers progressively: an air stewardess having an argument with her unemployed husband, and old lady telling old stories that no longer interest her caregiver, a black woman who is accused of stealing jewelry just when a newcomer, of Arab origin, moves into the apartment block. The narration itself is based on a void or non-event, however its dialogues refer to subjects such as terrorism or iimmigration. Even if the work remains deliberately vague in its global intention, the clash between personal stories and fictional characters of different origins and generations operates as metaphor of our contemporary society.

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.