– I’ve probably gotten more emo – VG

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– Jet set life? Yes, we could have it, smiles art star and author Matias Faldbakken.

– In any case, we both have international artistic careers and we fly here and there and set up exhibitions and launch books. But now I live a reasonably similar life to the A4. I also had a house, a car and children. And I’m happy, that’s it.

Because actually, as a teenager, he signed a contract with a friend to never get a permanent job and all the things that belonged to an A4 life.

– My friend and I, who unfortunately is no longer alive, were not very enthusiastic about this. We didn’t want to be a part of that part of the adult world and we signed a contract. In a way, I’ve managed to keep my side of the bargain: as an artist and writer I live a relatively free life, Matias Faldbakken tells VG.

In 2019 she married the successful artist Ida Ekblad and says they have a lot of help in each other.

– We have very different artistic practices, but an overlapping taste – and the same understanding of what is good and bad. She is a good sparring partner and yes, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the books have gotten a little less aggressive.

This week he comes out with his sixth novel: “Poverina”.

VG’s reviewer has already called it one of the strongest things he has read in recent Norwegian fiction – and gives the book roll the dice 6.

– Oh, okay, says Faldbakken when he hears the roll of the dice.

Check out VG’s review here – you just know it’s going to be fine. Very good!

– I’ve never actually gotten a six before. I took one and two, the whole nut was used. Especially as a visual artist, I have had a lot of problems.

– So yeah, this is really rewarding. I won’t tattoo it on my face, but I’ll take it with me, says Faldbakken.

In his previous award-winning novel “We are five” let a piece of clay come to life and become a kind of fifth family member in a rural family. In the end it didn’t go so well, did it?

– People are very curious about it, they contact me on all platforms and ask me: what happened in the end? I have to answer honestly: I don’t know. I don’t know more than what is written in the book.

Faldbakken is not at all interested in ending with two dashes under the answer.

– There is a strong expectation in people to have a Netflix-like ending, but I see it as the easiest way out. I’d rather make endings with multiple levels and pea responses. I don’t do it to be artistic and mysterious. I guess I’m trying to create an image of something rather than giving a definitive answer.

In “Poveri” he lets a young man crawl out of the forest. There are no normal young people.

– I am inspired by real stories that exist about so-called “wild children”. Orphaned children who came out of the shed for one reason or another, that no one knew where they came from or what had happened to them.

– I thought it would be interesting to write about a main character whose background no one knows. Not the main character per se, not his surroundings – and not even the author, says Faldbakken.

He is not satisfied with just one poor, here we know both two and three poor people.

– It’s a kind of poor triangle. Their sum becomes the image of a trauma, of what a trauma can be and how it can act.

– Do you write something about the fact that it may not always be appropriate to process a trauma?

– Now I’m not going to say that people don’t have to heal their trauma, but to speak for myself: you probably can’t get rid of a trauma, maybe you can see what power lurks in it, says Faldbakken.

Its driving force in both art and literature often comes from a problematic or conflicting place.

– I’ve been thinking a lot about where, and it’s not exactly something I want to talk about in VG.

– I can say that despair is not a good feeling, but it can produce a lot of good art and literature.

He is a relatively shy person in public.

For example, he never accepted a TV interview until the launch of this new book.

– I don’t know, I’m probably afraid to say something embarrassing that doesn’t belong on TV.

But this time he is catching up on several interviews, including a television medium.

– Maybe it’s age. I’ve probably gotten more emo, laughs the 48-year-old.

– My first books, the “Scandinavian Misanthropy” trilogy that I wrote at 20, were wild, conceptual and cheeky in many ways.

– Now I’m less rude, less nosy – and maybe a little more sincere. I touch on more emotional things now, says Faldbakken and nods affirmatively when asked if the new novel isn’t even hotter than what he wrote before.

– There’s definitely some kind of romance here, a love story.

– Yes, and a “solid dose of sulking” as our reviewer puts it so well?

– This is probably my take on sex in 2022.

– The boy who comes out of the skau ​​is at the bottom of the ladder – and he meets a figure who can be said to be the next-to-last on the ladder. The relationship that eventually arises may seem shocking and forbidden at first, but I try to prove that it isn’t, that it’s quite something nice, says Faldbakken.

He has long had a great international career as an artist, but now his literary agent Tor Jonasson in the Swedish agency Salomonsson believes that Faldbakken is starting to become world famous as a great writer who also creates art.

– Of course my literary agent thinks so, and my gallery owner will probably still think it’s the other way around. My ambition has always been to become an artist, but I write more and more. I can’t escape the role of author, says Faldbakken.

The first thing she does every day after making breakfast and sending the kids and young people away (she has a bonus 10-year-old daughter and two 18- and 20-year-olds from a previous relationship) is to write.

– I write right after they’re gone – and before I open everything and that kind of monstrous everyday stuff. Writing takes full concentration, but I never sit down and wriggle. After a couple of hours I move on to the work of art.

In 2020, Faldbakken was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Award for “We are five” and “The Hills” was published in 16 countries. “The Hills” also had a famous restaurant in Stockholm named after him – with the book logo on the dishes and menu and a book reading in the bathroom.

Behind the idea is Faldbakken’s agent, Niclas Salomonsson, and it’s a tribute to Faldbakken and his writings.

– Of course it’s great! Ida and I had a super fun night there not long ago. It’s not a smoky, seasoned restaurant like The Hills in the novel, but they use a lot of elements from the book. The place has become very popular – and I’ve heard that the Skarsgård family has become a weekly regular.

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