Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

My background is in dance and performance. I guess in stage related art. That influences how and
why I make my stuff quite a lot, actually. Because that’s where I get my tools. I have always been
fascinated with film and the way of creating films and experiences for people in a broader context
maybe… But I was also definitely drawn to just the action of being a stunt person. It’s a really great
job. It’s very inspiring for me and I take a lot of influences. So most of the time it’s more like 80
percent artist and 20 percent stunt woman. I think most people think of me as a performance artist
which is not bad. I mean, it is close to the truth I would say. My starting point is often a performative
way of thinking… But I make other things as well. It doesn’t mean that it has to turn out to be a
performance in the end. The starting point for me is often the body because movement and the
physical presence of the character are very important for me because of my background as a dancer
and so on. I love to collaborate with people. I think it’s very interesting to have another person’s
perspective. So there are different ways of collaborating if you think of the aspect of the authorship.
Sometimes I work together with people to help me in a kind of technical way and sometimes I work
together with people as a collaboration where we then share authorship. It’s really great to have
both! It’s important for me to have the possibility to collaborate with people and to have a more like,
let’s just say, something that’s just mine but it doesn’t have to do so much with authorship. I don’t
know, if I even think that authorship is that important and I even don’t think that is has to be a good
thing. Because authorship to me it means… Maybe it sounds negative, but it really means that you
stand alone with all the responsibility. Which is good but it is also good to have a break from that
sometimes and to explore other ways of working. I do collaborate regular with Baby Darwin, which
is – I wouldn’t say an artist collective, they have a very fluid function but it’s Lindsay Lawson (USA) and
Dafna Maimon (FI/IL) and there are also two Berlin based artists and we do the fitness for this TV
show together, which started as a project of mine and then we developed the concept and made it
into something that was something from all of us. And otherwise I have partners that I work with
maybe not all the time but once in a while.

Helga Wretman / Artist

Bio

Swedish artist based in Berlin. She completed her training at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm for Modern and Contemporary Dance and explores the fake and real, possibilities and limitations of the body and technology. As an Artist and Stunt double, Wretman thrives on pushing her limits and improving the state of her surrounding. Her persona and image become like design elements in works that toy with the tropes of performed actions. In her works she also takes on the role of a marionette in a metaphorical sense. She uses these performative investigations to probe at the instrumentalization of a world of products and consumptive coercion. Wretman has performed at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt (2014), the Palais de Tokyo (2012), Bergen Kunsthall (2011), Darsa Comfort in Zurich (2010), Kunsthalle Athena in Athens (2010) and NADA art fair in Miami (2009). Her video performance Dave was shown at the 12th Biennale of Lyon in 2013 and her television series Fitness For Artists is shown on Arte Creative TV. She also performs as a stuntwoman in numerous tv shows and cinema.

www.helgawretman.com

Transcript

PDF

Credits

The interview was conducted on Januar 11 2014 at Studio Nihil Baxter Berlin.

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Paul Barsch

Edited by: Paul Barsch

Transcript by: Lea Hoßbach, Ella Tetrault

Produced by: University of Cologne (Cologne), Institut für Kunst&Kunsttheorie