KEREN CYTTER = FASSBINDER + CASSAVETES + SOUTH PARK + BLAIR WITCH?

--In the BEFF5 program, I’m very glad that I may have a chance to see these films:

1.DIRTY PICTURES (2007, John Smith, UK) in the program 3.1

2.OFFSHORE (2007, Andrew Kotting UK) in the program 3.3

3.SOMETHING HAPPENED (2007, Keren Cytter, Germany) in the program 3.5


I have seen some of John Smith’s films and I love them. I have never seen a film by Keren Cytter, but what I have heard about her films implies that her films are must-see.

You can read a review on Keren Cytter’s films from FRIEZE magazine in October 2007:
http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/true_romance/


There is a quote from Cytter in the article. She said, “A cliché for me is an absolute truth, it is like the practical bible, it is something that passed through many people and it is this one sentence that stuck with them all. At least one of these people must genuinely believe in it. If the majority holds on to it, obviously it affects them. I keep saying I’m one of those people but nobody believes me.”


These are images of SOMETHING HAPPENED (2007, Keren Cytter)
http://www.elisabethkaufmann.com/site/000134.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/2342609121_0aaae06c0d_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2342609115_1d47144777_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2342609111_d74db94b90_o.jpg


--Keren Cytter’s films are also listed in Daniel Birnbaum’s TOP 10 BEST ART OF 2007 in ARTFORUM magazine, December 2007. You can buy this magazine from the link below:
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/issue=200710

This is what Birnbaum wrote about Cytter’s films in ARTFORUM:

“Wherever I go—Paris, Antwerp, Zurich, Moscow—I see a great new film by this Israeli artist that sticks the viewers, in the words of Willem de Rooij, “somewhere in between Fassbinder, John Cassavetes, SOUTH PARK, and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.” In certain works, Cytter’s protagonists seem to have lost control of their own “stories”, as in DREAM TALK, 2005, in which a group of friends mistake themselves for characters in a reality TV show. In the dense, rapid, looped video THE VICTIM, 2006, five people gather around a table and one of them—the victim—is driven to the ultimate point of no return: suicide, The story pushes forward with great speed and shows there is no limit to Cytter’s technical skills. Her films are humorous and psychologically riveting. Next time I travel, I’m sure I’ll see another splendid piece. I can’t wait.”


This is DANIEL BIRNBAUM’S TOP 10 BEST ART LIST OF 2007 in ARTFORUM magazine:

1.PAINTING WITHOUT END by Andre Cadere
http://www.sammlung.daimlerchrysler.com/contemporary/02_02_newminimal/newminimal_cadere_e.htm
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2343498878_23c3b7e136_o.jpg

2.PALERMO by Blinky Palermo
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/blinky_palermo/
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:4474&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2343498870_e69989ebc0_o.jpg

3.A MODERN CLASSIC and HELLDEN+BAERTLING by Olle Baertling

4.PUSS 1968-1973

5.ELECTRIC DRESS 1956-1986 by Atsuko Tanaka
http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/001084.php#more
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2108/2343498886_29cc918664_o.jpg

6.Paul Chan

7.Saadane Afif
http://www.antidote-2006.com/en/artists/
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/2343498880_30dc4f5913_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2011/2343498876_9a888e32b7_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2343498872_aa393be5f5_o.jpg

8.Keren Cytter

9.LIKE ORIGAMI GONE WRONG by Simon Dybbroe Moller

10.RICHARD PRINCE: SPIRITUAL AMERICA
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/prince.html



--Talking about art and film reminds me of the film CAR PAINTING (2006, George Barber, UK, A). I saw this film last year, but it will be shown again in BEFF5 in the program 2.2 DATA-PAINTING: LIQUID REALITIES. This film uses a car (or the tires of the car) as a paintbrush, and the street as a canvas. I have been thinking about this film lately after I read the article THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF PAINTING by Graham Coulter-Smith in artintelligence’s blog:
http://artintelligence.net/review/?p=497