‘It’s all about seeing, looking,’ Sjarel Ex says halfway through the film. And he’s not exaggerating. Even his meeting with the 100-year-old curator at the Boijmans museum is preceded by an image: first the name badge on her blouse has to be in place, only then can they talk. This is just one of countless lovely, highly meaningful moments in Conducting Boijmans, a film that principally demonstrates how many different qualities the contemporary museum director must have: from art connoisseur to diplomat, from manager to child-minder.
Ex sees the museum as an instrument you can have a go at playing – and so he does, with verve. For example, at the end of the film, when like a kind of Pied Piper he leads a school class to new art. It is striking how much manual work goes into this playing. He not only looks, but drills, lifts, paints and glues in the film. After all, we are in Rotterdam.
Film details
- Country of production
- Netherlands
- Year
- 2015
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2015
- Length
- 75"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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