Fashions

Trends and fashions do not simply disappear. Nonetheless, we no longer take note of them beyond a certain point and lose track, usually only feeling the urge to look at what is of interest at the moment.

The framework plot of Keren Cytter’s video work Fashions revolves around a web of relationships between three women: a mother who flourishes in her job as a canteen chef, her daughter who is unhappily in love, and the grandmother who is perceived by both as out of place in their world. In the private setting of their apartment, the three are confronted with cross-generational tensions that express themselves in disparate life plans, interests, and needs, but also moral and ethical convictions shaping their social reality.

The omnipresence of sometimes actively and sometimes casually consumed (media) content lends structure to their everyday lives: In an unprecedented mix of real-life horror images, the female protagonists are surrounded by acts of violence, racism, homophobia, human exploitation, and fascist symbols that subsequently take a plot-driving effect on the characters. There is no regard for the projection’s limiting frame either: the recurring picture-within-a-picture sequences in Fashions, created by the view of a television or other screens, give the impression that the performers’ space overlaps with that of the exhibition and the viewers, who are thus confronted as active actors. The fictional narratives of Cytter’s works, mostly produced with simple, immediately available means, can be read as ambivalent reflections of our society, recreating contemporary life in complex narratives comprised of sensitive scripting, precise editing, and engaging sound composition. Thus, they are not about pointing out grievances or clearly formulated criticism—which potentially create distance—but about exploring the social climate and emotional image of a time. In the rare dialogs complementing the confrontational images in Fashions, the protagonists react with the same dismissive gesture when explaining: “It’s fashion,” “It’s formalities,” “It’s fun,” seemingly ignorantly coping with an inescapable present. The fact that being haunted by history and its sometimes cruel residues in the here and now—albeit in different guises—above all affects those who have always been affected, is thus ultimately also taken into consideration.