The Dóra Maurer and the Béla Balázs Studio two-day film series surveys the short films made by visual artists working at the Béla Balázs Studio (BBS), Budapest, in the last two decades of Hungary’s socialist era.
The BBS was a state-sponsored filmmaking facility active from 1959–2005. In 1973, the studio began granting membership and resources to artists and composers who had no previous experience making films. This invitation came as part of the BBS’s Film Language Series, which was aimed at investigating the tools, techniques and structure of film through experimental filmmaking. This platform enabled visual artists such as Dóra Maurer to make to create inventive works that could not have found official support in Hungary's art context.
This screening presents three of the films Dóra Maurer made as part of the BBS’s Film Language Series and its later development, the K/3 group. Much like the films on display in Tate Modern’s free Dóra Maurer exhibition, these films explore aspects of filmmaking such as camera movement, duration and the film frame.
Maurer’s films are paired with works by artist and animator Ágnes Háy and the late artist and filmmaker Gábor Bódy, who initiated the Film Language Series. Together the programme explores the ways in which these artists expanded the tradition of structural filmmaking.
Programme
Introduction by Dóra Maurer
Gábor Bódy Four Bagatelles Hungary 1975. 35mm, black and white, sound, 28 min, Hungarian with English subtitles
Ágnes Háy Metronome Hungary c.1980. Super 8 transferred to 16mm, black and white, silent, 3 min
Dóra Maurer Triolets No. 1 Hungary 1977. 16mm transferred to VHS transferred to digital video, black and white, sound, 6 min excerpted from 15 min
Dóra Maurer and Zoltán Jeney Kalah Hungary 1980. 35mm transferred to digital video, colour, sound, 10 min*
Dóra Maurer Inter-Images 1–3 Hungary 1989–90. 16mm, colour, sound, 17 min
*Please note that Kalah contains flashing lights
Dóra Maurer Antizoetrope 1989–90, film still. Courtesy the artist and Sixpack Film, Vienna
Dóra Maurer Streams of Balance 1989–90, film still. Courtesy the artist and Sixpack Film, Vienna
Ágnes Háy Metronom c.1980, film still. Courtesy the artist
Dóra Maurer and Zoltán Jeney Kalah 1980, mounted film strips with notes. Courtesy the artists and Sixpack Film, Vienna
Gábor Bódy Four Bagatelles 1975, film still. Courtesy Hungarian National Film Archive