Kode | Harriet Backer – Art film

Kode museene - Kunstfilm

Produsert: Summer 2023

Oppgave:

In connection with the travelling exhibition "Harriet Backer. Every Atom is Colour", premiering at the National Museum in Oslo on 30 September, Sølvrev won the tender to create a short film about one of Norway's most important painters. The task was to depict the artist's time and works from Uvdal Stave Church, bringing Backer to life for viewers, along with the location, its interior and the surrounding nature.

Løsning:

Backer is considered one of the foremost colourists in Norwegian art, and her interest in capturing the sunlight in an interior at a particular time of day means her paintings are often described as "outdoor painting brought indoors". Backer's paintings were above all to be enjoyed as studies of light and colour, and with this in mind we wanted to create a painterly film in which we worked actively with light, colour and contrast. Filming took place in the stave church from the 12th century, which has an exceptionally colourful and richly decorated interior, and a requirement from the museum was that the script should be based on extracts from Backer's letters during her time in Uvdal, which gave a fascinating insight into who Backer was as a person. Filming in an over 800-year-old church was new for us, and to do so we had to follow clear safety protocols set out by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, covering everything from electrical equipment to the moving of objects. But this put no damper on what we could achieve – we had a very skilled team who managed to find alternative solutions to most things in a church full of pillars, beams and awkward angles. The exhibition, which opened at the National Museum in autumn 2023, will travel to the National Museum in Stockholm and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, before finally coming "home" to Bergen and Kode in 2025. As part of the exhibition material, the film will accompany it throughout.

Resultat:

In addition to accompanying the exhibition as part of the travelling exhibition material, the film was selected as a short film preceding the documentary Anselm at the Bergen International Film Festival. Kode's communications adviser Anette Basso says: "We have received a film of lasting quality – one that extends beyond the exhibition project and truly represents our core mission as an art museum. We were actually talking about it in the office recently, that we can barely recall a more 'painless' film project or project in general. From planning meetings through filming and post-production, Sølvrev maintained the process and was clear and patient with us as a client."

• Vi har fått en film som har en varig kvalitet, også forbi utstillingsprosjektet, og som representerer kjernevirksomheten vår som kunstmuseum. Vi skal dele historier med folk, og nå gjør vi det på en måte som ivaretar både forskningen og formidlingen, og som handler om kunsten vi forvalter. Vi snakket faktisk om det på kontoret for en stund siden, at vi knapt kan huske et mer «smertefritt» filmprosjekt eller prosjekt generelt. Det har vært så deilig å jobbe sammen med folk som har vist en genuin interesse for historien, som har vært lyttende til ideene våre, og formet og løftet dem fram i verden på en god måte. Fra planleggingsmøter til innspilling og etterarbeid - her har Sølvrev holdt fast i prosessen, og vært tydelige og tålmodige med oss som kunde .