Interview with Ricarda Ciontos
Were you always interested in art and what was your earliest memory?
Yes I was always interested in Art my parents are not from the art
business but my aunt was a painter and my grandma a pianist therefore I grew somehow up in an art environment but my first love was not
theatre and performance art but film and music and I think it still is.
Give us little background of your involvement in the Arts?
I am a trained actress who wanted to explore at some point what's
behind the curtain how the whole setting of an evening or event is
happening and I wanted to take own artistic decisions realize my own
vision about what I regard interesting in the arts with more then one
project at a time therefore the track on curating was pretty obvious.
Who are your cultural idols past or present or both?
Well I am not such a huge fan of the word idol I would rather say
peoples work which I observed carefully. It all started with the movies so movie actors and actresses where my
teenage idols James Dean was one of the first but also Bette Davis and
Gena Rowlands and other great performers over the years. When entering
acting school it changed a little bit to great theatre directors and
performers such as Jürgen Gosch or Frank Castorf but music and people like Cohen, Waits or Cave or even Aznavour and Bowie will always
be near to my heart. And for sure I forgot many
What is Nordwind and what is its mission?
Nordwind is nowadays a quite fluid and open platform for the arts I
think ideally it would be an transdisciplinary all year round platform
for all art genres and in collaboration with different partner to
explore urgent social and socio political topics.
It started actually more as a showcase-festival for the Nordic arts
moving towards an international profile and platform over the years
What is radical Art for you?
Radical art is honest direct sometimes painful and always
communicating with the audience beyond boarders of education gender or
ethnicity.
What were your favorite projects so far and why?
My upcoming project with Madame Nielsen is one of my favorites
because she is an exceptional demanding artist and it is always about
the quality of her work that your challenges as a collaborator or
audience member ends. I found out if the artistic oeuvre is bigger
then the natural craziness that we all share then its worth the whole
shebang and with Madame Nielsen its clearly that she is the bigger
artist then demanding or cutting edge nerve wreaking. She is just
amazing.
How did you meet Madame Nielsen and what did impress you most?
Her honesty and her humor and her intelligence and her uniqueness and
her language and her personal engagement. We met 7 years ago and did
already 2 projects in Berlin and Hamburg (die europäischen Medien
Importing Democracy) together there she was still appearing as Claus
Beck Nielsen and Nielsen
What can we expect from the exhibit at the Literature house Berlin?
A first over all show of her work as a performer, writer and musician
What do you consider success in art and its exhibits?
Very old fashioned: if it leaves traces in peoples minds and hearts.
How do feel like after a major exhibit?
Exhaustion.
What project is next on the horizon for you?
2019 will be again a bigger festival and we will work on gender and
post-neocolonial structures.
What comes after and with the #metoo movement where are long term
already existing strategies ect
Nordwind Festival
Artistic Director
www.nordwind-festival.de
