Laure Adler
Dietman, Erik Dietman, you are Swedish. You own 20 cats, you live in the country, you like to eat, you enjoy cooking, and also like to paint from time to time.
Is it true that when you arrived in Paris, you had no money, you rummaged through trash cans at night, you would pick up what was in the trash cans, and would go home to yours, break everything, then the next morning piece it all back together and that th
Erik Dietman
I began to create art, but I romanticized it a little bit, and all that is true, it's true.
And after I romanticized it a little.
You said that I am a painter, but I am more of a sculptor who also does paintings.
And it is true that I began with trash, because trash was very interesting at the time, today it is rather lean, which is why I work rather hard at the moment.
Laure Adler
So Guy Boyer, the Fine Arts magazine that you oversee did a beautiful part to the FIAC, and it also preferred to speak of artists. How would you qualify Erik Dietman?
They call him an ogre because he frightens, you see, he likes to eat, and he always mixes sensuality and the art of painting, and the art of sculpting as well.
Guy Boyer
For once, instead of defining his painting or his sculpture, it would be better to speak of his relations.
We haven't spoken of it, but he is a friend of Topor.
Erik Dietman
Yes.
Guy Boyer
I think that is a good idea because it shows a bit his joie de vivre, and also his humor, his derision.
Erik Dietman
And there we should speak of the film "Telechat" which was fantastic, where Topor...
Laure Adler
It's true, he really liked it.
Erik Dietman
It was very important, it was very good.
Laure Adler
And you then?
Erik Dietman
And me what?
Laure Adler
There was the trash period
Erik Dietman
Yes
Laure Adler
The you reconstructed the objects that you had found, then there was the sparadrap period.
Erik Dietman
[unclear] surrounded with gas, and after that of sparadrap, and after I...
Laure Adler
What was this idea of breaking objects and then recomposing them, it was...
Erik Dietman
That is if we break things, we have to put them back together, it was a procedure, they were not things that I, I never exhibited these pieces by the way.
It is there that I, that is important because it is a passage in my life, before I drew, I would make things that were...not classic, but what I would like to say is that it was a beginning.
No, at 22 years old, it's...
Laure Adler
Guy Boyer?
Guy Boyer
Yes, for his work, what is also interesting is perhaps to try and find relationships. Me I detest that, but sometimes I find that it can be useful.
Erik Dietman
A good red wine you mean?
Guy Boyer
No, but at the level of artistic work, I think that it is not that far removed. He will tell me the contrary, but finally the thoughts of Duchamp, ready made.
Maybe one needs to look a bit towards Schwitters, with collages that are elements of recuperation and perhaps also on sculpture, but there is not any here, on the side of Matisse's sculpture, because there is nonetheless...
Laure Adler
That makes for a lot of guardian fathers, Matisse, Duchamp, Schwitters...
Guy Boyer
But it can give an idea, it can also give an idea of his work.
Because when you see a canvas...
Erik Dietman
Oh! It smells!
Laure Adler
So you, you have there behind you, one of your canvases.
Erik Dietman
A collage, yes
Laure Adler
A collage. What can you tell us about this canvas?
Erik Dietman
I find that it speaks for itself, and that one can really perceive the title in it.
Laure Adler
What is the title?
Erik Dietman
L'art fou, foulard.
There are two scarves, and we also have a painting that, triangular of Chirico, and all that, it makes, it is more for professionals,
Guy Boyer
No, but this is effectively what we were saying earlier, the art of recuperation.
The two scarves that come to conflict in the painting.
The play on words, because effectively...
Laure Adler
I like word games.
Guy Boyer
In Erik's work, there are always word games, he is someone with a great sense of humor, who even makes poetry.
Erik Dietman
I'm a failed poet...
Laure Adler
Collages.
Guy Boyer
Collages, and we also find that in his work, because he incorporated this Chirico painting, which is only a reproduction, but evidently, mixes with his painting.
Laure Adler
At this time..
