A room of one’s own: Tilda Swinton says young artists priced out

At the opening of an autobiographical exhibition in Amsterdam – which will tour the world – Scottish actress Tilda Swinton said young artists are struggling in a world championing individualism, and where they are priced out of city spaces.

The exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum, Ongoing, includes a mock-up of Swinton’s first London apartment in which she spent nine years, had twins, and “found herself”, she said at a press conference. The show includes unseen film clips of her earliest work and collaborators including the late filmmaker Derek Jarman and Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.

In an ambassadorial role, Swinton said she frequently meets struggling young artists. “I go around the world talking to emerging artists who have maybe had their first collection, written their first book, had their first success, made their first film and they all seem to be struggling…with a pressure to individualise, a pressure to cut themselves off from the people who got them there, their kin, their collaborators, their family: a lot of them are really experiencing a certain amount of social anxiety,” she said.

While she had the luxury of her own apartment, a “chrysalis” in which to grow, young artists facing the housing prices in London and Amsterdam no longer have this. “I don’t know how anybody manages to afford to live in London or Amsterdam for that matter,” she added. “An issue for young artists is finding a place and some quiet where you can hear your own ears.”

Oscar-winner Swinton – who famously slept in a glass box in museums around the world to commemorate the loss of filmmaking friends such as Jarman to AIDS – does not describe herself as an actress. The exhibition, which will be reviewed by Dutch News on Monday, includes fashion, photography and art.