ikea's sitcom


I've found a feature about a sitcom shooted in an Ikea store.
Last year, without permission, Guy Ben-Ner (an Israel-born artist who lives in New York and Berlin) installed himself, his wife, and their two cutie-pie kids in Ikea model rooms all over the world.
Setting a camcorder on auto, Ben-Ner filmed his family in a semi-scripted soap opera. Most scenes last until Ikea staff throws everyone out. The result is the bitingly crackpot, politically poignant eighteen-minute Stealing Beauty.
Throughout, visual glitches multiply. Ben-Ner interrupts scenes to give stage directions. Strangers walk through, some staring as if at the zoo. The tags on the furniture switch languages. Announcements in German, Hebrew, and English intrude. The family keeps looking off-camera, skittish as deer. The narrative flows uninterrupted from room to room, continuity be damned. In one scene, Ben-Ner lies in five different beds.

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