Moving fluidly between the worlds of fashion and art while working in the upper echelons of cinema with some of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th and 21st centuries, Tilda Swinton is undoubtably one of our most magnetic living actors, somehow managing to be a household name while also retaining the elusive status and immaculate credibility of a cult figure.
The upcoming exhibition Tilda Swinton – Ongoing at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam (due to open September 28, 2025), curated by Swinton herself, promises to explore this mysterious polymath’s illustrious history and her collaborations with renowned photographers and filmmakers. With a focus on collaboration and the reciprocal nature of Swinton’s lifelong approach to artistry as a kind of ongoing creative conversation, the show will see the actor present six new works created especially for the exhibition, made with close friends and collaborators Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg, Jim Jarmusch, Olivier Saillard, Tim Walker and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Alongside delving into Swinton’s personal archive, the show will also pay tribute to the ever-evolving legacy of Derek Jarman, including never-seen-before archival material on 8mm.
“With the honour of this extraordinary invitation, Eye has given me the opportunity to reflect on the mechanics of my working practice over the past 40 years. 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,” Swinton writes, in a statement released by the museum. “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. An ongoing – and unbroken – thread of breadcrumbs through the wood, new leaves on long-established trees. The perpetual seedbed. I should be so lucky, in the gift of such an invitation, in such friends and in such a life.”
Visit the gallery above for a glimpse of just a few of the works featured in the show.