Single-channel video installation, color, sound
40 min
Commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13) and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, and co-produced by 3sat, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH, Berlin, and OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich. Produced by Filmgalerie 451, Berlin


In his chilling film Continuity, Omar Fast explores this concept both as a filmic device and as a psychological phenomenon, by chronicling the personal trauma of a couple that has lost their son in Afghanistan. Viewers are presented with three iterations of the same scenario: a young man being picked up and brought home by his parents after having apparently returned from the war, the son being played by a different actor each time. To begin with, the scene and its familiar domestic environment encourages viewers to consider the difficulties faced by soldiers and their families upon returning from war, addressing the impossibility of simply going back to "life as normal". However, in its continuous sequence, the film, beginning as an emotional story of homecoming, becomes increasingly oppressive, as we realize we are watching the attempt of a couple to come to terms with the loss of their fallen son with the aid of hired "escorts"- a nightmare scenario heightened by various moments of sexual tension between the parents and their "son", as well as hallucinatory scenes interrupting the film's "continuity". Omer Fast explains, "Continuity is a technical concept in filmmaking and relates to the production of a sense of linear time from disparate shots, I was interested in how this concept applies psychologically in the context of loss and mourning".
Thus the film's repetitive and seemingly endless montage evokes the compulsive repetition often inherent in trauma, withholding a sense of closure or catharsis. Continuity ultimately portrays a situation in pursuit of its own resolution. Fast's film thereby powerfully calls into question society's ongoing trust in war as a tool to regulate international conflicts and its simultaneous inability to properly deal with the effects war has, whether on a single human being or on society in general.


*1972 in Jerusalem, Israel | Living and working in Berlin, Germany

Omer Fast’s work moves beyond the formalities of the genre, pushing through reality and non-reality of his subject matter, and is ultimately about the status of the image as a tool to disseminate information, both real and manufactured.  Much of the video artists work delves into the psychology of contemporary trauma, often relying on the blurring of memory and the retelling of actual events through cinematic convention . In his work as a filmmaker, Omer Fast defines a new relationship between reality and fiction. He is interested in exploring the construction of narratives, in particular how stories change when told from different perspectives. Many of his recent works examine the shifting boundaries of modern conflict through the personal stories of those involved. Fast borrows from traditions of documentary, dramatization and fantasy, and use human emotions as stand-ins for the larger socio-political reality of contemporary warfare. He was the recipient of the 2009 Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst and the 2008 Bucksbaum Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License and from the James Cohan Gallery . 

Omer Fast: "Continuity" | ART21 "Exclusive"