'You were following me and I was following you,but neither of us knew where we were going!'

Conversation: Ahead of her solo exhibition at K21 in Düsseldorf, Julie Mehretu speaks with her longtime friend and collaborator Nairy Baghramian about their shared thinking around space and abstraction, and how art becomes a language for survival

- Julie Mehretu

NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN I have a very vivid and beautiful memory of you from when I first arrived in New York in 2017. It was at [our gallerist] Marian Goodman’s apartment, which always feels so cozy, and there you were sitting at the breakfast table.

JULIE MEHRETU Yes, I remember that very clearly. Marian was making eggs - very, very slowly. They took forever. There was this very deliberate sensibility to nurture the moment and not cut it short.

NB It was like we had endless time together. She introduced us and it didn’t take long for me to realize that this would become a very close and deep friendship. Marian’s presence made it feel almost like a ménage à trois: she was part of the moment, but not entirely involved.

JM Yes. I felt the same way. I remember thinking, ‘Where has this woman been my whole life?’

NB Exactly.

JM A couple of years later, we spent quite a bit of time together installing our work at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019; hanging out, talking about art, looking at things, laughing - lots of laughing.

NB We found each other getting lost in Venice.

JM You were following me and I was following you, but neither of us knew where we were going!

NB Do you think our friendship has evolved alongside our respective practices?

JM Well, for me, there is always this natural connection between who you are as a person and who you are as an artist: they flow into one another. While we were in Venice, I was working on my house in New York, and I'd show you pictures of the renovation. And then you'd say, ‘Are these the door handles the architects are suggesting? No, no, no! I'll make them for you.’ It was this kind of naturally evolving conversation - whether about love, family or the political situation - that embedded a form of creative living within our friendship.