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By Tilda Swinton & Olivia Laing
Publisher: Hannibal Books
Publication in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, until February 8, 2026.
In 1994, Tilda Swinton at the age of 33 went to 43 funerals, including that of Derek Jarman, the artist who had shaped her way of working that she terms “co-authorship”.
She declines to be identified as an actor, resisting the idea that she interprets. She prefers the term model or even a “gesturist”, citing Bertolt Brecht’s headstone: “He made suggestions” – or gestures. “No answers, a few further questions, possibly unanswerable. A declared ignorance, a humility, and the generosity of sharing the insufficiency.”
You could say that humility is incompatible with an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Eye museum and an accompanying book that celebrates an art form centred around Swinton’s sculptural beauty and way of collaborating. That said, the result is to convince us of its power.
As the first of her “co-authors”, Jarman for Swinton was irreplaceable. Given his death as a result of AIDS, the conversation with Jarman can only take the form of a letter of homage from Swinton.
After that, exchanges with her collaborators, who accompany Swinton in her exploration of extreme human emotion, range over a shared love of an art form that offers comfort as we endure as much as celebrate the human condition, especially as politics fails.
If only our leaders would draw on Tilda’s “Notes for Radical Living” for their philosophy. They include: defy unkindness; be wary of the doubtless; listen to the quiet and finally, head for the light.
Collecting a lifetime achievement award at the 2025 Berlinale, Swinton spoke of the “Great Independent State of Cinema”.
She described it as “an unlimited realm, innately inclusive, immune to efforts of occupation, colonisation, takeover, ownership or the development of Riviera property, borderless and with no policy of exclusion, persecution or deportation. No known address. No visa required.”
Three months after Swinton’s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump made film the latest target of his trade war and decried it as a threat, full of “messaging and propaganda”.
If anyone is a match for Trump, it is Swinton. In addition to being a gesturist, as the daughter of a retired major general, she considers herself “a soldier of cinema”, marching for a cause that understands “the limitless possibilities every single human life contains”. Her life, in particular, is one of privilege and possibility. Her appetite for work that she freely admits equates to play, is ongoing, four decades after she began her co-authorship with Jarman.
Tilda Swinton – Ongoing
By Tilda Swinton & Olivia Laing
Publisher: Hannibal Books
Publication in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, until February 8, 2026.
In 1994, Tilda Swinton at the age of 33 went to 43 funerals, including that of Derek Jarman, the artist who had shaped her way of working that she terms “co-authorship”.
She declines to be identified as an actor, resisting the idea that she interprets. She prefers the term model or even a “gesturist”, citing Bertolt Brecht’s headstone: “He made suggestions” – or gestures. “No answers, a few further questions, possibly unanswerable. A declared ignorance, a humility, and the generosity of sharing the insufficiency.”
You could say that humility is incompatible with an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Eye museum and an accompanying book that celebrates an art form centred around Swinton’s sculptural beauty and way of collaborating. That said, the result is to convince us of its power.
As the first of her “co-authors”, Jarman for Swinton was irreplaceable. Given his death as a result of AIDS, the conversation with Jarman can only take the form of a letter of homage from Swinton.
After that, exchanges with her collaborators, who accompany Swinton in her exploration of extreme human emotion, range over a shared love of an art form that offers comfort as we endure as much as celebrate the human condition, especially as politics fails.
If only our leaders would draw on Tilda’s “Notes for Radical Living” for their philosophy. They include: defy unkindness; be wary of the doubtless; listen to the quiet and finally, head for the light.
Collecting a lifetime achievement award at the 2025 Berlinale, Swinton spoke of the “Great Independent State of Cinema”.
She described it as “an unlimited realm, innately inclusive, immune to efforts of occupation, colonisation, takeover, ownership or the development of Riviera property, borderless and with no policy of exclusion, persecution or deportation. No known address. No visa required.”
Three months after Swinton’s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump made film the latest target of his trade war and decried it as a threat, full of “messaging and propaganda”.
If anyone is a match for Trump, it is Swinton. In addition to being a gesturist, as the daughter of a retired major general, she considers herself “a soldier of cinema”, marching for a cause that understands “the limitless possibilities every single human life contains”. Her life, in particular, is one of privilege and possibility. Her appetite for work that she freely admits equates to play, is ongoing, four decades after she began her co-authorship with Jarman.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, books, film, philosophy • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, film, philosophy