Omer Fast Livres

Omer Fast's video installation The Casting is based on interviews held with a U.S. Army sergeant before his renewed deployment in Iraq. Fast describes the project "During several days he told me two stories which I have interwoven. The first took place in Bavaria and describes the sergeant's relationship with a German girl who loves speed and self-mutilation. The second story takes place outside Baghdad and deals with a bomb on the roadside and a tragic mistake." Fast took these two stories and processed them into a screenplay, which he then had interpreted by actors as a series of silent tableaux. This succinct volume documents these tableaux with numerous color photographs and includes a conversation between the artist and Sven Lütticken, as well as a text by Matthias Michalka.

"Godville is a two-channel video constructed from interviews with eighteenth-century character interpreters in Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum in Virginia, U. S. A. The museum actually occupies the grounds of the historical town that it recreates, administering to the preservation of town's buildings and grounds while training and paying its residents to act out colonial American life." (preface)

Founded in 1984, Parkett has long been an important source of literature on international contemporary art. Each biannual issue is a collaboration with four artists, in which their work is explored in fully illustrated essays by leading writers and critics. In addition, each artist creates an exclusive limited edition, available to Parkett readers. Recent featured artists include Ed Atkins, Mika Rottenberg, Lee Kit and Theaster Gates (98), Andrea Büttner, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Camille Henrot and Hito Steyerl (97), Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Pamela Rosenkranz, John Waters and Xu Zhen (96), Jeremy Deller, Wael Shawky, Dayanita Singh and Rosemarie Trockel (95). Additional articles include Konrad Bitterli viewing Hubbard/Birchler's latest film trilogy and the paintings of Markus Döbeli (97); Nuria Enguita Mayo on drawings and paintings by Anna Boghiguian; and Julieta González provides an overview of Mexico City's arts institutions (96).