The Head and The Load, workshop. Catherine Meyburgh, with William Kentridge & colleagues. | Photo: Stella Olivier.

Catherine Meyburgh and the Moving-Image Worlds of William Kentridge

BRUSSELS / JOHANNESBURG – Pluartis is pleased to present the second installment in our dedicated editorial series on the vital circle of collaborators surrounding William Kentridge. This new chapter focuses on Johannesburg-based director, editor, and projection designer Catherine Meyburgh.

Collaborating with Kentridge since the mid-1990s, Meyburgh has been a decisive architect of his moving-image language. Working at the intersection of documentary cinema, animated film, opera, and multi-channel installation, she orchestrates the complex temporal rhythms and video-mapping systems that define productions such as The Magic Flute,The Nose, Lulu, Wozzeck, The Refusal of Time, and the monumental The Head & the Load.

Where Kentridge’s studio practice begins with charcoal marks on paper and the physical mechanics of erasure, Meyburgh translates these material traces into cinematic duration. Her craft bridges the meticulous pacing of the edit suite with the live demands of the theatrical proscenium, aligning multi-screen synchronization, archival footage, and animated sequences with live orchestral performance and spatial narrative.

In this dedicated profile, Pluartis examines Meyburgh’s independent filmmaking career alongside her thirty-year collaborative dialogue with Kentridge, offering insight into how image, music, and time are constructed on the international stage.

The full profile and accompanying visual documentation are now available here.