Ragnar Kjartansson
The Visitors
04.02.2023 - 17.09.2023
Gallery 01
The Visitors – an ode to friendship under the intonation of romantic desperation. A group of friends and musicians gather in the natural habitat of bohemians, during the twilight hour, in the faded splendor of Rokeby Farm in Upstate New York. The location becomes a scene for what Kjartansson calls a feministic nihilistic gospel-song: a multilayered portrait of the artist‘s friends, an exploration of film-music, which title derives from ABBA‘s final album, The Visitors, marked by separation and defeat. The music is written to a collage of sentences from Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir´s video works and performances.
The Guardian named The Visitors the best artwork of the 21st century after it was first exhibited in the Migros Museum in Zürich 2012. The work has triumphed in all the major art museums of the world and has only once before been exhibited in Iceland, in Kling & Bang 2012.
Ragnar Kjartansson (born 1976) studied at Iceland University of the Arts, The Royal Academy in Stockholm and the Homemaking School in Reykjavík. His solo exhibitions have been held in respected art museum around the world. He represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 2009.
Musicians: Davíð Þór Jónsson, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Ólafur Jónsson, Þorvaldur Gröndal, Shahzad Ismaili, Ragnar Kjartansson and Kjartan Sveinsson.
Curator: Hlynur Hallsson.
Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors, 2012. Nine channel video installation with sound. Duration: 64 minutes. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.
Photo: Elisabet Davids.
Loan from TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection.
