Monograph based on two films by Keren Cytter.
Following the exhibition of Keren Cytter at the Plateau from the end of 2009 to the beginning of 2010, the book that Frac Île-de-France/ Le Plateau is realizing is structured around two films from the collection of the Frac Île-de-France titled Four Seasons and Nightmare. Like in the book's collection “Bibliothèque des classiques du cinéma” published in the 70's by Balland, the two films are shown in their wholeness – screen capture of the shots to follow the narration and French and English dialogues. Both Four Seasons and Nightmare deal with couple stories and the book organisation – head-to-tail – works like a mirror. Each part includes a biography of the actors and musicians, a filmography and a press release on the artist.
Published on the occasion of the Keren Cytter exhibition at Le Plateau, Paris, from December 2009 to February 2010,
Keren Cytter (born 1977 in Tel Aviv, lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin) is an Israeli visual artist and
filmaker.
Her topics often include love stories, violence, sex and murder. She applies a non-linear narrative, the stories often shot with a hand-held camera. The actors—amateurs and friends of the artist, but more recently professional actors—switch roles with each other, or read their stage directions out loud. Scenes are repeated, but with a different course of events, with voiceovers or alternative dialogues. The films are usually set in simply-furnished apartments, especially the kitchen regions, suggesting a connection to kitchen sink realism. The literary tone of the dialogue, however, is far from realistic. “Instead the films are deliberate hybrids between seemingly incompatible genres, between home videos and auteur films in the spirit of the French nouvelle vague, between Dogme and docu-soap or sitcom. But her films are above all existential dramas about the human condition, about love and hate in our thoroughly medialised age" (Magnus af Petersens).
Keren Cytter has rapidly established herself internationally as one of the most interesting and unique artists on the contemporary art scene. At the mere age of 33, in the last years she has produced more than 50
video works, written three novels and an opera libretto, started the dance and theatre company D.I.E.
Now, won awards and is the darling of the art press. Her critically acclaimed film
works and drawings have been exhibited in leading institutions throughout Europe and
North America, including the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Museum Moderner
Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), the Museum
of Modern Art (Dublin), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). She has
also participated in prestigious international exhibitions such as the
9e Biennale de Lyon,
Manifesta 7 (Trento), the Yokohama Triennale of 2008, and the Venice Biennale 2009.
See also
Poetic Series (edited by Keren Cytter);
Keren Cytter Does Not Like to Share – A one-sided account by Mathilde Supe.
