Rhythmus I c. 1922

Curator: Here we have Hans Richter's "Rhythmus I," a study on film, exploring rhythm through simple geometric forms. Editor: It feels like a musical score, or perhaps a series of coded instructions. The scale is intriguing; so intimate, yet hinting at something much larger. Curator: Precisely. Richter’s approach strips cinema to its essence, examining how form and movement create visual music, a language independent of narrative. Editor: But it's also the materiality of film itself—the perforations, the emulsion—that speaks to the mechanical process. Each frame hand-crafted, a very deliberate act of labor. Curator: Indeed, though the focus remains on the interplay of lines and shapes, the composition evokes something beyond the physical. It’s an invitation to perceive abstract relationships. Editor: Perhaps. Yet, understanding the means of production gives the work resonance; the artist’s touch, the limitations of the medium itself…it all informs the final product. Curator: A compelling point. It seems we both find value in this seemingly simple study, albeit through different lenses. Editor: Exactly. It's the tension between form and process that makes it so engaging, wouldn't you agree?