Fashions, 2019, 30:56 min
In collaboration with Syndicate
Online screening followed by a conversation with Bologna-based critic and curator Antonio Grulli, Liam Murtaugh, Karen Cytter and Asha Bukojemsky
Fashions (2019) stages a theatrical fable amongst roommates in a German aparment. The film dramatizes the compression of symbolism and history through a tale of complacency, human commodity and the genesis of contemporary neofascism.
90’s free-market fever indoctrinated adolescents to the manic content creation of the 2010’s. Relevance decisively conquered the concept of truth. Today, humanity’s most grievous flaws frolic together in digital rehabilitation. Terrors implanted throughout popular culture as unlockable achievement badges of value, luxury, and success.
Fashions was first commissioned by Nicolaus Schafhausen for ‘Tell me about yesterday tomorrow’ at the NS-Dokumentationszentrum München in late 2019.
Listen to the conversation below:
Keren Cytter (Tel Aviv 1977) creates films, video installations, and drawings that represent social realities through experimental modes of storytelling. Characterised by a non-linear, cyclical logic Cytter’s films consist of multiple layers of images; conversation; monologue, and narration systematically composed to undermine linguistic conventions and traditional interpretation schemata. Recalling amateur home movies and video diaries, these montages of impressions, memories, and imaginings are poetic and self-referential in composition. In addition to her video and performance work, Cytter is also a critically acclaimed writer: she has published five novels. Selected solo exhibitions of Cytter’s work include Museion, Bolzano (2019); SCHLOSS, Oslo (2017); Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2015), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2014); Tate Modern Oil Tanks, London (2012), Avalanche, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2011).
Antonio Grulli (La Spezia 1979) is an art critic and independent curator based in Bologna, where he is in charge of the collection and activities of contemporary art at Palazzo Bentivoglio. Grulli’s projects are centered on contemporary art criticism and focus on spoken language, round tables, lectures and dialogues, held in both private and public institutions. He has curated solo and group exhibitions at venues including: MAMbo (Bologna), Viafarini (Milano), Museo di Castelvecchio (Verona), Galleria Francesca Minini (Milano), Galleria Raffaella Cortese (Milano), Galleria De Foscherari (Bologna), Galleria P420 (Bologna), Galleria Tiziana Di Caro (Napoli), 3+1 Gallery (Lisbon) and project spaces Neon Cambobase (Bologna) and Codalunga (Vittorio Veneto). He has written for Flash Art, Mousse Magazine, Cura Magazine, ATP Diary, Artribune, Boite, Exibart, and Arte e Critica. Grulli has collaborated with Keren Cytter for more than ten years. They co-curated the festival The First Morning Fest of Unreasonable Acts (held in Bologna in 2018) and co-wrote the book Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Diary, published in 2018 by Humboldt Books (Milan).
Syndicate is a liquid institution directed by JL Murtaugh (Chicago 1983). It originated in London as a series of three-day projects from 2012. Syndicate occupied a permanent space in Cologne from 2016-2017. Today, it assumes varied forms worldwide through writing, exhibitions and events.