Interview

MATHIAS AUGUSTYNIAK: Hello?

BJÖRK: Hi!

AUGUSTYNIAK: How are you?

BJÖRK: I’m good. So who’s going to start?

AUGUSTYNIAK: Do you want to start? We wrote a series of questions.

BJÖRK: I wrote several questions, too.

AUGUSTYNIAK: Ladies first or boys first?

BJÖRK: Boys first!

MICHAëL AMZALAG: Yeah, but which one of us? [laughs]

AUGUSTYNIAK: So we have known each other for more than 10 years. But we’ve never had a public interview together. Nevertheless, we see the series of works that we have produced together as evidence of an ongoing series of conversations. Do you feel the same about the series of images we have created together over the years?

BJÖRK: Yes, for sure. I’ve always appreciated working with people I have chemistry with, who are friends, and where you feel that the work is growing while you are getting to know each other better. Because the relationship changes as you learn more about people, and the work sort of takes on its own life. I enjoy this very much. We’ve had a lot of conversations, but it’s never directly about the work. I sometimes get a little shy when people try to analyze too much.

AUGUSTYNIAK: I think the same. That’s why doing an interview like this is complicated for us. [Björk laughs] Because we’ve talked a lot, but we’ve never really talked about certain things.

AMZALAG: I don’t really ask questions when we work together. Everything is kind of understood in the process, and that’s why I always prefer to decode what you’re doing, and then make my opinion privately. So maybe I would not be a good journalist . . . But now that we have kind of accepted this game, we have to force -ourselves to try to get things in public.

BJÖRK: Yeah, it’s a sign that you have a good work relationship if you don’t have to analyze. [laughs] That’s usually a good sign within creative work. Should I ask the next question?

AUGUSTYNIAK: Yes, ask the next one.

BJÖRK: I wanted to know if you would ever be interested in building your own house. And where you would want to build it, and what material it would be made out of, and if you would want to paint it. Would you want it to be made of wood or concrete or glass? What color would you paint it?

AUGUSTYNIAK: I have a problem with this because I tend to live where chance leads me. I’m not very good at building a nest. I’m a bit like the cuckoo. I like to find existing nests. I like the idea of a ready-made house.

AMZALAG: I think for me as well—I would be completely embarrassed about having to think about what kind of house I’d build because it would raise too many questions. [laughs]

BJÖRK: I’ve been traveling in Guatemala in the rainforest, and here all these houses are made of sticks. It seems so easy to make one.