Rose Lowder

Rose Lowder is a Franco-Peruvian experimental artist and filmmaker. Born in Lima into a family that encouraged her to pursue an artistic education, she moved to London in 1960 and attended the Regent Street Polytechnic School (1960–1962) and then the Chelsea School of Art (1962–1964), where she studied sculpture, painting, design and drawing. After completing her studies, she worked as an editor for British television. It was during a screening that she discovered the experimental animated films of Robert Breer (1926–2011). She then realised that "you can make films as an artist" (interview with Scott MacDonald, Millennium Film Journal, Autumn 1997).

A recognised figure in the field of experimental cinema, Rose Lowder has directed around fifty films. A pioneer of a holistic ecological approach and a unique use of technique, she captures natural processes, often observed in the Provençal countryside near Avignon, where she has lived since 1972. She offers the viewer a vision of nature free from distortion and without the addition of light. Many of her films are held in major international art centres. In Avignon, she also co-founded the Archives du film expérimental, for which she also acts as a programmer. An associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Paris 1 since 1996, she taught the history, theory and aesthetics of experimental cinema there until 2005.

This interview is conducted by Enrico Camporesi, an Italian art historian, critic and researcher specialising in experimental cinema and artist films. He is head of research and documentation for the film collection at the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou. His publications include: "Futurs de l’obsolescence: Essai sur la restauration du film d’artiste" (Mimésis, 2018), "L’Histoire d’Une histoire du cinéma" (2023), co-authored with Jonathan Pouthier, and "Read Frame Type Film" (2025), with Catherine de Smet and Philippe Millot.