Egill

Age: 42

City: Berlin

Can you introduce yourself?

I’m an artist from Iceland. I studied in Iceland at the Art Academy, finished my study in 1997, and I was also in Paris as an exchange student for one year. Then I moved to Berlin at the end of 1998, and have been living here since then. Now I have a studio making different works and preparing exhibitions, having a little team working with me. We are mainly working on installations with video projections onto objects or onto places, or doing performances. I also work a lot with music. I write music and I sometimes release albums, or I integrate the music into my art.

Most of the people I’ve interviewed are kind of emerging, or haven’t really gotten where they want yet. But you seem like you have achieved a lot of things, and are kind of already at an established level. Maybe you can talk about how you first started, and how you arrived where you are today.

Well, I still feel like I have a lot of things to establish, you know. So, somewhere in the middle of the way, like all of us, I guess. You know, you never get to your final destination. Isn’t there a book about the road or the way from Lao Zi? A book about the road, passage or voyage. Anyway, we were talking about the journey of being an artist, coming out of school and going further.

So yeah, I mean, I graduated in 1997. And I just immediately got a studio and started working. It was really difficult at the beginning, to believe in what I was doing, but slowly I made more works, and then exhibitions came up. I was trying to meet more people, and works came about. And at some point, I could get some grants also, which was really helpful. Maybe sell a handful of works. Yeah, I standardized a pretty good work system. So I’ve been able to live from my art since maybe year 2000, something like that.

That’s 15 years already. So you moved to Berlin 16 years ago, and just one year after you arrived here, you could already live on your art.

Yeah.

I imagine the Berlin art scene must be quite different back then?

Yeah, exactly. That was one of the reasons. When I moved here, I realized that the rent was so cheap, it was like half of what it was in Iceland and the food was 1/3 of what it was in Iceland. So it was so practical to be here. That’s maybe why I was able to get by without needing to do all the jobs. Because the rent was really low, and I could have a low-cost lifestyle for many years. But that has changed now. Now it’s much more expensive than what it was.

Do you think it was also easier to be an artist back then versus now? Getting noticed and stuff?

I think that there are actually more artists in the world even just over the course of these last 15 or 20 years. Because there have been more art schools producing art students.  When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, the art world was only about big countries like America, Europe or maybe China and Japan or something. South America was completely out of the map. Even Scandinavia was kind of out.

And then, everything opened up. Actually China was kind of the “Chinese Art Wonder” that happened I guess around the late 80s. And suddenly all these artists came from Eastern Europe when the wall came down, the iron curtain between East and West, when communism stopped being around in the Soviet Union. Suddenly there was a wave of artists coming from Scandinavia. If you look at art magazines up until the 90s, you only have articles or most articles about artists from New York, London, Paris or something.

Globalization opened barriers and the Internet has connected people. Everything has changed. So now there are suddenly many more artists around, also from all those countries.  They are also competing for attention. But again, the market is bigger. There are many more art fairs around the world than there used to be. Everything has grown. I don't know if it’s really more competitive or harder to become an artist than it was before. I would guess it’s not harder or easier, I think it’s probably the same.

Maybe now it’s more difficult to get attention and have everyone wanting you. But maybe it’s easier to get noticed in one area or in one community.

Yeah, it's also like that. I think there are more artists that are kind of not super successful, but they have enough success to survive. There are more of them.

I just read an article yesterday someone wrote about art professionals. They were saying actually most of the people who do go to see exhibitions and shows are somehow related to art. They are not a general audience. And they go to see it because they have some sort of professional or academic interest. So for you, do you also go to exhibitions to see what’s going on and how your work is relevant to that?

Trying to see it from more of a commercial point of view you mean? 

In other words, is going to see exhibitions somehow like working time for you?

Yes and no. My life and my work mix a lot. But you know I’m also a fan of art. And I think that there was a point in time, maybe like eight years ago, something clicked in my head, and I started to like almost all the art I saw. Before I was like hating almost all of it. And suddenly, I started to like seeing all kinds of good art or stupid art, this art or that art. It doesn’t matter somehow, I just like to watch it.

But you still know or feel what is good art and what is bad art?

I think so. Something that just makes me tic. I don't know, bad art also makes me tic, but it’s on a different level. Because for me, the experience of art is very spiritual, sometimes going to art exhibitions I get this very strong spiritual feeling as if there is a gigantic creature that is inside all humans and that has been working and doing things for a very long time, which is kind of like an artistic expression. Because I think there is a force that will never be captured by money and capitalism and all of that stuff.  It’s in the art. It’s in a lot of the art. Even the ones that are trying to make something that is trying to sell. Or something, you know. You see some beauty glimpse through, because it’s also actually beautiful in its own way.

So the creative drive of making art is a monster?

It’s a good monster. I have sometimes talked about art as being a species, you know, it’s a creature and force that like many other creatures and forces has joined with mankind, is part of the development of mankind.

Art is like a creature walking alongside humans, and it’s creating humans just like we are creating art. Dogs are created from wolves. There is no natural dog in nature. You know this? No wild dogs, all the dogs like Chihuahau, Poodle, Golden Retriever, all of the dogs, they all come from wolves. They have just been bred into those different species by selecting dogs that have shorter feet or longer feet, more wavy fur, straight fur or smaller or bigger. But they all come from one creature, which is the wolf.

And with art, shapes and forms, and even some sort of beauty or love, or hate, all the emotions exist in nature. But then, humans started to make artworks. You know some birds also make artworks, they make beautiful nests and things. Humans also have done quite a lot of it. And it developed so much that it became like a species just like the dog walking with humans from the wolf. And art is a species that is growing, because we think we are in control of art, but we are not. The art is part of us, and it’s also creating us, you know? The human body is not just a human body. It’s a conglomeration of cells and millions of bacteria living together, creating something that we think is us. But everything is connected.  So art is a creature, it’s one way of looking at it.

What happened, that turning point of your view towards art, when you say you started liking all kinds of art?

I think it’s just a love of diversity. I love to see amateur art. I love to go to exhibitions from art schools and see what beginners are doing. There is so much beauty in it. Because there is always something other than what people are wanting to show. It’s like the beauty in watching the art of children, because the children are really maybe trying to say something.

And also, I sometimes deliberately make artworks that look very boring and not interesting, and I project something on it, with video, to make it have another life. Actually, I’m always remixing something. And I’m always learning from others, and copying others, and adding something to it.

Do you come to work Monday to Friday, or even more?

More. I try to take some days off.

Do you enjoy coming here every day, or at some point does it become like a job?

Umm, I am enjoying it especially when I manage to take stress away. I’ve been trying to take away a lot of expectations that I had toward success and accomplishments,  to not look at those thoughts, but to look at just the moment I’m in and enjoy it. That’s what I’m trying to do. Beause I’ve been chasing success, chasing something that is like chasing another person in front of me, you know, for some years, and I always thought that… I was hoping to become a super famous artist, or super famous musician, and then, it didn’t really happen.

And I think it’s kind of damaging in the long run too, to be waiting for something to happen, instead of trying to enjoy what’s happening at the moment. Because a way to go from A to B is sometimes you have to go from A to M, and then from M to B.  You never know, the way might be different. Maybe that’s also better than to go to B. So I’m trying to learn to enjoy life and be happy. Then I believe the big spirit of the world will also have fun being with me and bring me good things.

What do you most like, and what do you most dislike about the art world?

I think… I don’t know… it’s kind of cool to be an artist, and you can decide if you want to sleep longer one day, or something, you know you can do it. And I think it’s really nice to travel to different places. It’s of course really great to be kind of your own boss.

And yeah, I don’t know, what do I not like about the art world. Umm, well, I guess there are some things that I don’t like very much, but I think it’s maybe kind of unavoidable, and just part of human nature. There are always things in life maybe we don't like so much. But it’s just unavoidable. I get scared though sometimes to meet some gallerists, and curators from big museums or something. But it’s just my preconceived idea, you know. Usually they turn out to be lovely people, or not. Depends, just normal people.

What are you scared of? That they will be mean, they don’t like your work or…?

Yeah, I guess so. I get scared of not knowing what to say if I meet them. Or they will judge my work and they won’t like it.

What do you think about collectors?

There are many different kinds of collectors. Collectors are humans that have very different intentions. And even the same collector might change his or her intention from day to day, or week to week, or year to year. And their reason for the interest in art can be very different. I think that collectors are very important for art. If there is nobody collecting art and enjoying it, then why make art, you know? It has to have some interest and some exchange.

So I think that there are so many different kinds of collectors, just as there are so many different kinds of artists. All artists are honest in wanting to be an artist, but they have different ideas about it. What is it that they see as being an artist? Some just admire, maybe they admired art when they were younger, or they thought that’s something they would like to do. And there is all the complexity of what lies behind it. It’s a lot of risk, because it’s not given that you will be able to live from your art. 

Do you think that if an artist is good enough, they will be successful anywhere, that physical location will not be restriction on their talent?

There is a good chance for it, but also a lot of chance that he or she will not. Because, he or she will only be successful if other people see his or her art. And if some great artist makes work somewhere but it never gets seen, then you know, it doesn’t exist. So, I think the place matters.  

If not in Berlin, but anywhere else in the world, where would you choose to live?

Shanghai, of course. (Laugh) No, I don't know. I think I’m ready to spend more time in Iceland. I think the places that we are from, they are important for us. They are part of our identity, and almost part of our body. I don't think that it’s the same to live wherever in the world, I think that the place can be important. It’s just like wherever your heart is better. But there are also so many places that I want to live. I always have this kind of fantasy about maybe living in London or something. And probably when I move there, I’m going to find out it’s terrible to live there. 

Interviewed in Friedrichshain, Berlin. July 28th, 2015