Oscar-winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton shocked fans earlier this year when she told the Berlin International Film Festival that she was taking a break from making movies.
But on Wednesday, the celebrated performer, artist, and fashion icon unveiled that she is developing an exhibition, Tilda Swinton – Ongoing, exclusively for the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, featuring eight works created in collaboration with such big names and friends as Pedro Almodóvar, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg, and Jim Jarmusch.
The exhibition will also present works with Olivier Saillard, Tim Walker and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, as well as the late Derek Jarman.
“Eye has given me the opportunity to reflect on the mechanics of my working practice over the past 40 years,” Swinton said. “And to come to rest on the – ever-present – bedrock and battery of the close fellowships I found from the very first and continue to rely upon to this day. In focusing attention on profoundly enriching creative relationships in my life, we share the narratives and atmospheres that inspire us: we offer new work, especially commissioned for the Eye exhibition, as the most recent gestures borne out of various companionable conversations that keep me curious, engaged and nourished.”
She described the works as “an ongoing – and unbroken – thread of breadcrumbs through the wood, new leaves on long-established trees,” as wel as “the perpetual seedbed.”
Concluded Swinton: “I should be so lucky, in the gift of such an invitation, in such friends and in such a life.”
Since 2012, Eye has produced a range of exhibitions on cinema, on the art of the moving image and filmmakers, but with the Swinton exhibition it will focus on the role of the performer. “Actors and performers are often seen as passive vessels to be filled or moulded by directors,” it said. “Tilda Swinton – Ongoing focuses on her active contribution, the potential for co-authorship, and creative agency. By inviting filmmakers and artists with whom she has shared close working relationships, conversations and creative exchange over decades, Swinton reveals how these long-standing connections shape the films and (art)works that they create together.”
The museum also noted such recurrent themes in Swinton’s work as “nature, memories, the essence of memory itself, ancestors and spirits, friendships and fellowships, and the liminal space of creation.”
Five of the artworks are created alongside filmmakers – Almodóvar, Guadagnino, Hogg, Jarmusch, and Weerasethakul. “The sixth, a performance and installation, is being developed with fashion historian and curator Olivier Saillard, drawing inspiration from Swinton’s personal archive,” the museum said. “The seventh, through the lens of photographer Tim Walker, invites viewers to explore her roots. The legacy of filmmaker Derek Jarman also plays a prominent role in the exhibition: in the eighth work, Swinton is presenting never-before-seen archival material from his 8mm oeuvre.”
Tilda Swinton – Ongoing will run Sept. 28-Feb. 8 and be accompanied by a program of films and talks. Check out details on the museum’s website.
