Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

So, the inspiration usually comes from something that interests me in everyday life anyways and also
it’s kind of an urge to research more but usually the real starting point is when I kind of actually
already have a pretty clear vision of what it is I want it to be. And then, the travel to get to that point
of course changes everything.
I don’t have a studio. I think the work is… because it’s so fluid, the medium is so fluid and also
because of working in a performative way it’s kind of not really necessary for me to have a studio. I
stay at home a lot and read stuff on the internet and I speak with people which I think is much more
important actually and I live my life and then ideas pop into my brain. Sometimes I think: okay, now
it’s finished, whatever. But most of the time I just know like, this is what it was supposed to be,
somehow.
I think for me, success, if it’s succeeding, I don’t think about it so much. I think about if I’m happy
with the work or not and I like when people say nice things about it but that’s not so important. I
think, I’m more happy when people don’t like it – and some people like it and others don’t like it –
than when people automatically are positive, yeah.
When I’m not satisfied or where I feel like it doesn’t reach my ambitions, then first I freak out and
then I try to fix it. And it also happened that I said, ‚No, I can’t. This is not finished. I can’t deliver to
this specific date or so on. And most of the things that I do, they develop naturally like that. You
show it somewhere and you speak with people or you see that there is something missing maybe
when it’s showing. I mean, that’s also another way of seeing the work in sort of a live situation
maybe.

Helga Wretman / Production

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