EXHIBITION

KEREN CYTTER| KNUT KLASSEN

Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin, Berlin, 03/08/2008 - 05/02/2008

Max-Beer-Strasse 25

ABOUT

The Galerie Olaf Stüber will show four video works in the current exhibition. Two by Keren Cytter: Something Happened (2007, 7 min) and Der Spiegel (2007, 4:50 min), and two by Knut Klassen: Liv (2006/07, 38:26 min) and Lis (2005/06, 19:56 min). Keren Cytter (born 1977 in Tel Aviv, lives and works in Berlin) is a storyteller. She narrates using the medium of experimental cinema, drawing on a multitude of genres, from Film Noir to fictive documentary film and pure Cinema Verité. Short stories in which everyday occurrences coincide with mystery. Keren Cytter tells stories that are both commonplace and absurd, that form a balancing act between the comical, the grotesque, and the tragic while at the same time commenting on the medium film itself. Her films document her environment, her apartment, her friends and family, who operate in a kind of dreamworld filled with egocentric goals, deep-seated frustration, personal ambitions, and intimate desires. Cytter deconstructs traditional narrative structures by superimposing clips with non-harmonizing voice- and sound sequences, often doubling them with subtitles, and thus mixing a frequently astonishing and increasingly arbitrary reality.(...) Knut Klassen (born 1967 in Münster, lives and works in Berlin) also tells stories. He also works on the medium itself, each video defines a new form, his protagonists are actors or friends, unconditionally in the here and now. While Cytter draws on Film Noir, Klaßen seeks his kindred spirits in the Nouvelle Vague. Text and statements accompany his films. His films themselves are statements, assertations. Klaßen strives for totality, taking a challenging stance. Klaßen’s narratives are not linear. Instead, they take the form of investigations – reflections on the present. In doing so, he pursues – with his very own aesthetic approach – questions about the self-perception and production conditions of artists, about the basic conditions underlying the visual arts and the question of how far one can take freedom in art. Theatre plays a central role in the work of both Cytter und Klaßen. They act in a theatre, and use theatrical elements (choir), wooden-sounding auditions, or intense staged portrayals of two protagonists.

For More Information

APT ARTISTS ON VIEW

Keren Cytter

Share this Exhibition: