Tilda Swinton’s Career and Collaborations Will Be on Display at Amsterdam’s Eye Filmmuseum

Tilda Swinton is getting a museum retrospective. Well, her version of one. The Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam will present Tilda Swinton – Ongoing. The exhibition will invite fans into her world, acting as the actor’s autobiography told through the artistic collaborations that have helped shape her career.

Spanning the worlds of filmmaking, performance, fashion, and photography, Ongoing will feature eight pieces made in collaboration with some of Swinton’s biggest collaborators. That includes five directors who have been important parts of Swinton’s oeuvre: Pedro Almodóvar, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg, Jim Jarmusch, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Some never-before-seen archival material from the late filmmaker Derek Jarman will complement the original material. Jarman gave Swinton her very first film part in Caravaggio, a fictionalized biopic of the famed Baroque painter.

But Ongoing will not only focus on film. Swinton’s unique sense of style will enter the conversation in a performance and installation inspired by the actor’s own archive and developed by fashion historian Olivier Saillard.

Photography will also play a key role in the exhibit, and it’s very likely the pages of W will be highlighted in a section that will explore Swinton’s roots through her many photographic collaborations with Tim Walker. Over the past 15 years, Swinton and Walker have worked together on a series of fantastical, cultural, and historical photoshoots for W. Their most recent spread was inspired by the artist John Singer Sargent and Swinton’s own family history.

“Eye has given me the opportunity to reflect on the mechanics of my working practice over the past 40 years,” Swinton said according to the Hollywood Reporter. “In focusing attention on profoundly enriching creative relationships in my life, we share the narratives and atmospheres that inspire us: we offer new work, especially commissioned for the Eye exhibition, as the most recent gestures borne out of various companionable conversations that keep me curious, engaged, and nourished.”

The exhibition was created exclusively for the Dutch museum, which has a long history of preserving and celebrating films of all genres. It will run from September 28, 2025 through, February 8, 2026. In addition to Ongoing, the Eye will screen a selection of films starring Swinton and hold a program of talks surrounding themes of the exhibition and Swinton’s career.