Lise Sarfati
The New Life
HC, 34 x 27 cm., 120 pp.
Twin Palms 2005
"In each of these portraits Lise Sarfati dramatizes the complexity of adolescent identy: within unfamiliar territory - both emotionally and physical - where the simplest of feelings become exalted and everything is lived with an intensity that adults will never again be able to feel. We are talking here of a parallel reality, an interstitial territory which doesn´t understan geographical spaces or political systems, which no longer belongs either to a completely real reality or to a conciously conceived fiction, but rather finds itself fed by its own rituals and codes, where the dividing line between good and bad , happiness and sadness, innocence and perversity is extensively blurred." F.Javier Panera-
"Lise Sarfati's The American Series presents the less accessible world of teenagers. Shot through with self-consciousness, they stare pensively into middle distance. Or perhaps they're bored, constantly mooching from lounge to bedroom universes. Quietly emotive music, accompanying a slide show of repeating characters, enhances the subtle sense of story. But these aren't the mythologized American teens of American Pie, they're more Ghost World ? aloof, challenging and uncertain. Unnervingly isolated and inert, they seem trapped but poised as if to run off any minute." BBC-
Die Jugend bleibt unter sich... Nach Larry Clark und Bill Henson und dem ganzen third sex-hype der letzten Jahre führt uns Lise Sarfati in das Leben einiger Jugendlicher, aus irgendeiner abgelegenen Provinz im Westen der Vereinigten Stadten. Jeder Jugendlicher ist ein Schauspieler bei der Probe, ein Taschendieb vor dem Coup, ein ernüchteter Erwachsener. Jede Jugendliche ist auf einem Trip, im Netz gefangen, unter dem Neonlicht abgetaucht.