Dieter Roth in My Life: Memories

‘Dieter Roth in My Life: Memories’ is a rare testimony—an honest and highly personal account of a period in Sigríður Björnsdóttir’s life, shared with a man she describes as the love of her life. The author met 26-year-old Dieter Roth in Copenhagen in 1956. A year later, Roth joined her in Reykjavík, and in 1957 they married. Over sixty years later, Björnsdóttir recounts their meeting, their life together with her daughter, Adda, and their children Karl, Björn and Vera, the ups and downs of their marriage, and their eventual separation and divorce. Beyond her own professional and artistic activities, and her roles as mother and wife, the author describes her collaborative and experimental work with Roth, their encounters with friends and artistic peers within the tightly woven Icelandic creative community, and the beginnings of Roth’s multifaceted practice.