Found Sounds: Barbara Meter

In the early 1970s, in need of a critical response to the commercialization of film production and programming, Barbara Meter (Netherlands, b.1939) co-founded the Electric Cinema. Run by members of the Amsterdamse Film Coop, and STOFF (the Studio for the Development of Film and Film Manifestations), the theatre became the epicenter of Dutch independent and avant-garde filmmaking. At the Electric Cinema, Meter curated international avant-garde and expanded cinema programmes. After that, she co-created POLKIN (Political Kinema) and made documentaries as part of activist and feminist movements.

In her avant-garde films, she pushes the cinematic medium forward with her unique way of repurposing documents and audio recordings, utilizing an innovative, masterful application of optical printing techniques. Meter manipulates the images and reworks found sounds to find and create a personal expressive mode. After many years of work, the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, working closely with the artist, has preserved Meter’s films in all their delicacy and complexity, screened here on 16mm, including a double projection of Portraits.

Curator: Mónica Savirón

Screened:
SAT 25/10, 15:00 SLOTTS

Köp biljett

ARIADNE

With images of knitting wheels and vinyl records evoking the labyrinths of Greek mythology, Ariadne, shot on Super-8mm film, reworked and blown up to 16mm with the optical printer, and enlarged to 35mm, is an homage to the quality of cinema as both weaving craft and relentless labour of love.

Netherlands 2004 / 12:00 / Director: Barbara Meter

APPEARANCES

Meter works with still photographs of Weimar-era Germany that were left to her by her parents, who fled the country in 1934.

Netherlands 2000 / 21:00 / Director: Barbara Meter

CONVALESCING

In this silent, contemplative, reflective work that takes place in a single room, Meter treats her own footage as if it were found, re-shooting and manipulating it as if it had been given to her, trying to figure out what it is and what lays behind it.

Netherlands 2000 / 3:00 / Director: Barbara Meter

SONG FOR FOUR HANDS

This is a shot/reverse-shot film that creates a conversation without words between a woman, Barbara Meter, and a man, experimental filmmaker Jos Schoffelen. The film proposes a dialogue deafened by a chord from a Mahler symphony.

Netherlands 1970 / 3:00 / Director: Barbara Mete

STRETTO

The word “stretto” is an Italian musical term referring to the final section of a fugue, characterized by interweaving melodies. In the film, Meter, by employing dissociative imagery and disconnected musical tunes, builds on the polyphonic patterns of history and identity. The soundtrack is John Cage’s Music for Prepared Piano 2, a percussion-like piece conceived as a dance accompaniment.

Netherlands 2005 / 6:00 / Director: Barbara Meter

PORTRAITS

Alternating one, two, and four screens, Meter features close-ups of artists Sally Potter, Mattijn Seip, Pim van Isveldt, and Mike Dunford from different angles and at fast speed. At the end, a wide, complex portrait may be created by accumulation of layers in the viewer’s mind.

Netherlands 1972 / 6:00 / Director: Barbara Meter

A TOUCH

With sound effects of passing trains, running water, and wind, plus an exquisite imagery manipulation with the optical printer, Meter pays homage to the fragility of celluloid, as well as of our own vulnerable materiality. She treats emulsion as if she were touching skin, with the same attention, permissions, and apprehensions, actions and reactions.

Netherlands 2008 / 13:00 / Director: Barbara Meter