David Lamelas
Conflict of Meaning (Film Script)
November 27, 2008–January 31, 2009
Berlin

'The subtitle of the piece is ‘manipulation of meaning’. The idea was to show how fact can be manipulated through film – because of censorship, commercial aims or political manipulation for example.' (David Lamelas about ‘Film Script’)

‘Film Script’ elaborates on the nascent development of plot in ‘Cumulative Script’ (1971) that uses the device of alternating key narrative elements. The work consists of the simultaneous projection of one film and three slide sequences.

The exhibition situation in Nigel Greenwood’s gallery in 1972 reflected the self-referential plot, filmed in the gallery itself with Greenwood’s assistant Lynda Morris, playing the main role. A woman walks down a path, gets into a car, gets out somewhere else, walks into a building and down a hallway into a sparsely furnished flat, looks out of the window, sits down at a desk, leafs through some papers, smokes a cigarette, and tips a glass of water. The telephone rings while she is cleaning up. She answers it, speaks, hangs up, picks up her things, leaves the flat, and finally turns to face the camera that has been following her.

The film projects a running accumulation of scenes that could as well be documentary or fictional. The first slide projector shows the action in a sequence of stills; the second one shows two of the scenes from the film in a different order; while the third shows salient moments of the action and cuts one scene altogether.

David Lamelas varies the way of manipulating action, which in turn affects narrative development and influences its reception. (Heike Ander in: David Lamelas – A New Refutation of Time, Richter Verlag Düsseldorf, 1997, p. 86)