Ragnar Kjartansson - The Visitors

The Visitors, one of the most significant works by Ragnar Kjartansson (Reykjavík, 1976), will be on view until November 17, 2013 in the monumental industrial space of HangarBicocca in Milan. The exhibition is curated byAndrea Lissoni and Heike Munder (Director of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich).

With its title and concept inspired by the last album of the Swedish group ABBA, The Visitors offers a reflection on the theme of the power and persistence of affective ties and of the melancholy and romanticism that are typical of the artist's Nordic culture. Music is a fundamental element in all the artist's work and, as Kjartansson himself says, it is used as "an almost sculptural element." Composed by the artist himself for the poem entitled Feminine Ways by his former wife, the performer Asdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, the soundtrack alternates powerful and subdued sounds.

The work consists of nine videos on a scale of 1:1, in which the audience sees different musicians, all friends of Kjartansson's (including Kristín Anna and Gyða Valtýsdóttir, founding sisters of the historic Icelandic band Mùm, and Kjartan Sveinsson, keyboard player until 2012 with the famous Sigur Rós). For over an hour, the musicians, each with a different instrument, sing and play the same melody of a song called Feminine Ways. The nine scenes are set in the many rooms of the large, dilapidated nineteenth-century Rokeby Farm in upstate New York. The nine audio and video tracks were made separately but are shown together on large screens. The display has been specially designed by the artist and curators to emphasize the visual and audio elements of the work. The audience is thus placed at the center of a continuous, choral piece.

Ragnar Kjartansson -
The Visitors

curator/s:
Andrea Lissoni, Heike Munder