Erik Schmidt: Retreat

What is planned fails, what is thrown down is accepted

Adriano Sack: In your new film "Inizio", you hold up a sign that reads "Paradise". What role does paradise play in your work and your dreams?
Erik Schmidt: The attempt to stage life as a paradise is an important driving force for me. When I go somewhere, I feel this total fascination, even if it's just a palm tree beach. Of course, I'm not talking about paradise in the religious sense. Rather the state of bliss on earth.
AS: You shot Inizio in the garden of Villa Massimo in Rome. What does this place mean to you?
ES: It's a very beautiful garden. But the film is not set at Villa Massimo, but in an undefined location. At the time of filming, Italy was in lockdown and we needed a private retreat.
AS: For the first time in one of your films there is a kind of alter ego, the young actor Christian Erdt. Is there no "Inizio" for the older artist?
ES: No. Or maybe it is. There is a new beginning, but there's no going back. The dress the other person slips into doesn't fit me. I have to continue where I am.
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AS: "Inizio" is the companion piece to the film "Fine", which you shot in Olevano near Rome. "I am a man of the world", the film begins as the actor walks towards a house of the dead. What does this thought mean in a small Italian mountain town like Olevano?
ES: It fits. Don't people in small towns always think that they are men of the world? Anyone who really is one wouldn't think that.
AS: In "Fine", the artist pours oil over himself. This is a recurring motif in your films. You are constantly undressed or dressed, your body is bathed, massaged or doused. What haven't you done to yourself yet?
ES: No tattoo. No holes. Nothing that leaves permanent damage.
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AS: You painted the Westphalian mixed forest, olive trees in Israel and palm trees in Asia. Is there a connection?
ES: There is a formal and structural connection. Plants always have a centre. I have taken this to the extreme with the palm tree paintings: they are square and in the centre is the nut. Beyond that, however, I am incredibly free when painting trees. With a portrait, you're still somehow committed to the face. Nobody can understand that with nature. Especially when painting over photographs. As a painter, I can act completely freely. It's almost like action painting: I throw colour, it runs and drips. The palm tree in my paintings is also battered. But it remains recognisable. (Three short extracts from Adriano Sack's interview with Erik Schmidt)

Exhibition:
Kunstraum Potsdam, 18/9 - 30/10/2022