I am an artist and a writer based in the UK whose work shifts between performance, visual art and fiction. I have worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of the world-renowned Sheffield-based performance group Forced Entertainment and I am currently Professor of Performance at Lancaster University. Since 2008 I have exhibited widely in the context of visual arts including the Biennials Manifesta 7 and 9, October Salon (Belgrade), Goteborg Biennial and Folkestone Triennial 2014. Recent exhibitions include For Now (solo, Plymouth Arts Centre, 2015), Personal Statement (solo, VITRINE, 2015), Version Control (Arnolofini, 2013), Who Knows (solo show, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 2014), The Part in the Story (Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2014), MirrorCity (Hayward Gallery, London, 2014) and Folkestone Triennial 2014. Recent publications include Vacuum Days (Storythings, 2012), While You Are With Us Here Tonight (LADA, 2013). 

1. Tim Etchells

Performance maker, artist, writer.

2. What do you see when you see your artwork?

I see the decisions I took. I get reminded of things that were on my mind. I remember questions I was busy with. Sometimes I see opportunities I missed. Compromises I made. If I'm lucky I get the taste of what I was chasing - the particular question, complexity and contradiction I was trying to articulate or get into.

3. Which elements your exhibition could not miss?

Language. Things that are complex in their simplicity.

4. Your artistic process in a few words.

I work in a lot of different media and contexts - making performance, writing fiction, making sculptures, photographs and videos - so the process varies a lot. I think at the heart of it though, there is a kind of collecting language or images, or actions and then working through those things. I'm always drawn to something and then find myself trying to find a way to articulate it. Trying to make things sing… so that their complexity, or their tension is visible.

5. Alive artists or art pieces that are a reference to you.

My partner Vlatka Horvat is the person I talk with the most, about my work and about hers. We share a lot, though our practices are very different.

I admire many other artists, there are so many: Bruce Naumann of course, because my concerns connect to his in a clear way - around language and objects. Meg Stuart, the choreographer, who I have collaborated with a bit, also Boris Charmatz. And lately I started thinking a lot more about music and sound.

6. Tendencies that you can perceive or follow in contemporary art scene in the past 15 years.

I don't think about this kind of thing so much. I mean, clearly there's been a big turn towards performance and “Post Occupy” or “Post 2008” there´s been a lot of interest in the inter section of art and activism.

7. What would you put inside your cabinet of curiosities?

Ghosts.

8. The experience as an artist in residence at CDAP.

Well I wasn't really part of the residency as such. I participated in two exhibitions while I was doing my Artist of the City of Lisbon project. I liked CDAP very much: the spaces are amazing and the people I worked with there, very lovely.