Tilda Swinton Comes to Onassis Ready with “A Biographical Wardrobe”

A Performance–Autobiographical Confession Through Her Personal Collection

Tilda Swinton, together with renowned fashion curator Olivier Saillard, presents six unique encounters with the audience, narrating her life through an eclectic collection of garments. In this generous autobiographical journey, the artist unfolds family heirlooms, dresses worn on red carpets, costumes from films, and deeply personal objects.

As part of her exhibition Ongoing at Onassis Ready, Tilda Swinton meets the Athenian audience from May 16 to 19 for a rare experience: a solo autobiographical confession, an intimate and profoundly personal moment inspired by an extraordinary collection of personal uniforms, garments, costumes, and objects. Through them, she unravels her life story alongside fragments of her family’s past, her homeland of Scotland, and the history of the twentieth century, moving from “imposed femininity” to queer identity, and from World War I to pop culture.

In the performance A Biographical Wardrobe, Swinton and Saillard bring her collection to life as a tender gesture of memory and presence, as an embrace for the families and friendships she carries within her, as well as for the personal and professional moments that shaped her.

Olivier Saillard, the distinguished fashion historian, curator, and museum director, is internationally known for his groundbreaking fashion presentations. Rather than relying on lifeless mannequins, his exhibitions feature minimalist installations evoking the living body. His presentations animate historical garments. Saillard and Swinton have collaborated on several such performances, with Swinton often serving as the living “pedestal” or foundation.

Her timeless appearance and fluid gender identity allow her to effortlessly embody a wide range of historical periods, people, and characters, as seen in The Impossible Wardrobe, featuring unworn pieces from the Galliera Fashion Museum collection in Paris, or in Embodying Pasolini, where, by reviving costumes known only through their brief life on celluloid, Swinton creates a silent dialogue with the enduring traces of the iconic Italian filmmaker’s work. The latter was presented at the Onassis Stegi in December 2023.

In A Biographical Wardrobe, Saillard and Swinton jointly narrate the story of her personal wardrobe, which includes garments worn by her ancestors, countless costumes and ensembles from films and public appearances, as well as clothes she continues to wear in her personal life.

About Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton made her film debut with director Derek Jarman in 1985 in Caravaggio. Her second film was Friendship’s Death by Peter Wollen. She went on to make seven films with Jarman, including The Last of England, The Garden, War Requiem, Edward II, for which she won Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival, and Wittgenstein, until Jarman’s death in 1994.

Swinton gained wider recognition in 1992 through her leading role in Orlando, directed by Sally Potter and based on the novel by Virginia Woolf.

She has maintained long-standing collaborations with filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch in films including Broken Flowers, Only Lovers Left Alive, and The Dead Don’t Die; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen in Hail, Caesar!; Lynne Ramsay in We Need to Talk About Kevin; Luca Guadagnino in I Am Love, A Bigger Splash, and Suspiria; Joanna Hogg in The Souvenir and its sequel; and Bong Joon Ho in Snowpiercer and Okja.

She also worked with Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr in The Man from London and appeared in Trainwreck directed by Judd Apatow. In 2020, she starred in The Human Voice directed by Pedro Almodóvar.

In 2008, she won both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Michael Clayton directed by Tony Gilroy.

In 2020, she received a Fellowship from the British Film Institute and a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival.

In 2022, she appeared in Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller alongside Idris Elba, collaborated for the fifth time with Wes Anderson in Asteroid City, and reunited with Joanna Hogg for The Eternal Daughter. More recent appearances include The End by Joshua Oppenheimer, Problemista by Julio Torres, and The Killer by David Fincher for Netflix.

In February 2025, Tilda Swinton was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

She is the mother of twins and lives in the Highlands of Scotland.

About Olivier Saillard

Born in 1967 in Pontarlier, Olivier Saillard is one of France’s leading fashion historians and curators and formerly headed the fashion department at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He has curated exhibitions at the Musée de la Mode in Paris and Marseille, the Musée Bourdelle, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Saillard collaborated with Swinton on the live exhibition-performance The Impossible Wardrobe at Palais de Tokyo in 2012, featuring garments once worn by Marie Antoinette and Napoleon, among others. A year later, he created a dress live on stage for Swinton in Eternity Dress (2013). Their most cinematic collaboration is Embodying Pasolini (2022–2025), in which Swinton wears costumes from the films of the Italian director.

He has authored numerous books, including Histoire idéale de la mode contemporaine: Les plus beaux défilés de 1971 à nos jours and Le Bouquin de la mode, and curated major exhibitions such as Yohji Yamamoto: Juste des vêtements, Christian Lacroix: Histoires de Mode, Azzedine Alaïa, Jeanne Lanvin, Madame Grès, la couture à l’œuvre, Balenciaga, l’œuvre au noir, and Le musée éphémère de la mode.

In 2018, he founded Moda Povera, a clothing design initiative rooted in poetry, performance, and pedagogy, where everyday garments acquire the aura of haute couture through craftsmanship and expertise.

About Onassis Ready

In the heart of Agios Ioannis Rentis, a former plastics factory has been transformed into something entirely new: Onassis Ready. It is an authentic and generous space where artists are invited to dream, rehearse, and take risks. Spanning 3,760 square meters, it is the newest creative hub within the expanding ecosystem of the Onassis Foundation. The venue opened in October 2025 with Juergen Teller’s exhibition you are invited.

More than just a building, Onassis Ready is a space that listens, adapts, and invites, embracing the artistic creation of Onassis AiR/ONX Fellows while building bridges between the physical and post-digital worlds. It is where Athens meets New York and the rest of the world, where the post-digital intersects with the deeply human, and where the ideas of tomorrow can be tested loudly, silently, and freely.

On the occasion of the exhibition Tilda Swinton – Ongoing, visitors can also discover a curated selection of publications on Swinton’s work and a range of objects inspired by her personality. The specially designed exhibition shop features the official exhibition catalogue created in close collaboration with graphic designer Irma Boom, published by the Eye Filmmuseum and Rizzoli in collaboration with Hannibal Books, alongside tote bags, cards, notebooks, stickers, and publications by the Onassis Foundation.