Omer Fast, Nostalgia, 2009

Installation view of Nostalgia III

Video Installation
Nostalgia I, Single channel HD video with sound, 4:35
Nostalgia II, Two channel HD video (synchronized) with sound, 9:49
Nostalgia III, Super 16 Film transferred to HD video, 31:48 Edition 6 (+ 2 A.P.)

Nostalgia is a three-part film installation including one film depicting a migrant from a dystopian Britain seeking asylum in Africa. Adapted from a true story, this narrative is presented alongside an extract of original footage and a dramatisation of an encounter between the artist and a person seeking asylum in Britain. Deliberately combining these disparate elements, Omer Fast confronts us with a contemporary recollection of displacement and loss in a film narrative that is set in the future but which appears to have been produced in the past.
In a West African colony increasingly hostile to Britons seeking a better life, an asylum-seeker is interrogated as to the whereabouts of a tunnel used to smuggle people into the colony. He is offered a deal by the authorities and must choose between betraying his friends and securing his future.
This story was inspired by a conversation between the artist and a West African national seeking asylum in London. While not a straightforward adaptation of his experiences, the work picks up on one strand from his life story and embeds it in several scenes that repeat in each film.

Omer Fast, Nostalgia, 2009

Installation view of Nostalgia I

Video Installation
Nostalgia I, Single channel HD video with sound, 4:35
Nostalgia II, Two channel HD video (synchronized) with sound, 9:49
Nostalgia III, Super 16 Film transferred to HD video, 31:48 Edition 6 (+ 2 A.P.)

Nostalgia is a three-part film installation including one film depicting a migrant from a dystopian Britain seeking asylum in Africa. Adapted from a true story, this narrative is presented alongside an extract of original footage and a dramatisation of an encounter between the artist and a person seeking asylum in Britain. Deliberately combining these disparate elements, Omer Fast confronts us with a contemporary recollection of displacement and loss in a film narrative that is set in the future but which appears to have been produced in the past.
In a West African colony increasingly hostile to Britons seeking a better life, an asylum-seeker is interrogated as to the whereabouts of a tunnel used to smuggle people into the colony. He is offered a deal by the authorities and must choose between betraying his friends and securing his future.
This story was inspired by a conversation between the artist and a West African national seeking asylum in London. While not a straightforward adaptation of his experiences, the work picks up on one strand from his life story and embeds it in several scenes that repeat in each film.

Omer Fast, Nostalgia, 2009

Installation view of Nostalgia II

Video Installation
Nostalgia I, Single channel HD video with sound, 4:35
Nostalgia II, Two channel HD video (synchronized) with sound, 9:49
Nostalgia III, Super 16 Film transferred to HD video, 31:48 Edition 6 (+ 2 A.P.)

Nostalgia is a three-part film installation including one film depicting a migrant from a dystopian Britain seeking asylum in Africa. Adapted from a true story, this narrative is presented alongside an extract of original footage and a dramatisation of an encounter between the artist and a person seeking asylum in Britain. Deliberately combining these disparate elements, Omer Fast confronts us with a contemporary recollection of displacement and loss in a film narrative that is set in the future but which appears to have been produced in the past.
In a West African colony increasingly hostile to Britons seeking a better life, an asylum-seeker is interrogated as to the whereabouts of a tunnel used to smuggle people into the colony. He is offered a deal by the authorities and must choose between betraying his friends and securing his future.
This story was inspired by a conversation between the artist and a West African national seeking asylum in London. While not a straightforward adaptation of his experiences, the work picks up on one strand from his life story and embeds it in several scenes that repeat in each film.