STRETTO

by Barbara METER
2005 / 16mm / color / sound / 1S / 6' 00

Rythmic montage of old photos in which past and present become linked by association.

The word “stretto” is an Italian musical term referring to the final section of a fugue, characterized by interweaving melodies. The musical theme gets repeated at different pitches and timbres before those notes reach their end. This way, the notations appear superimposed, contrapuntally, and gaining in textural intensity. It sums up several, temporally off-set, statements. These accumulations occur in fast tempo. By employing dissociative imagery and disconnected musical tunes, Meter 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. Meter defies the storyline standard of beginning, middle, and end, and translates the world, one of death and immigration, by suspending its images and sonorities in a temporality than moves backwards rather than forwards. It is not the meaning of these sounds what is important, but their unsettling emotionality and intensity.
- Mónica Savirón



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