Q&A

Dafna Maimon

What’s your background?

I grew up in Finland in a half-immigrant entrepreneur family and had a pretty chaotic upbringing. Humor, laughing and adaptation is a big part of my “origin-story”. I studied in Amsterdam, first sculpture, then time based art. I’ve been formed by living, working and traveling in Europe and the U.S and all the friends and collaborators I’ve encountered along the way.

What influences you artistically?

Embodied practices, moving, listening, studying my body, and the way body-minds carry and express trauma, joy and aliveness. Relationships, (to self and others) the psychology within them, porousness and conversations with collaborators weather they be verbal or through co-creation. A pursuit of trying to understand and surpass the various systemic social codes we all suffer from.

How do you start a new work?

Usually within or from conversation, or from ideas that come in reaction to something that is difficult or mind-boggling to me. Sometimes it can be one drawing that gets me going, an image in my mind, a title, or a scene, and then I build a world around it. I never start a work unless the idea of it made me laugh.

What are you working on right now?

Embracing more inner weirdness, looking for it, hoping it will emerge by digging and playing. I’m singing a lot at the moment, without a clear idea where it will take me next. After just having made a performance with my doodle-like songs, I imagine turning them into “music” videos or performative spaces next. An artist book is also in the making.