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Ragnar Kjartansson
Photos diane arques / ADAGP, Paris, 2016
Photos diane arques / ADAGP, Paris, 2016
Photos diane arques / ADAGP, Paris, 2016
Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors, 2012. Nine-channel video projection, 64 min. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and Galerie i8, Reykjavik. Photo: Elisabet Davids
RAGNAR KJARTANSSON, THE VISITORS, 2012. PROJECTION VIDÉO NEUF CANAUX, 64 MN.
COURTOISIE DE L’ARTISTE, LUHRING AUGUSTINE, NEW YORK ET DE LA GALERIE I8, REYKJAVIK.
PHOTO : ELISABET DAVIDS
RAGNAR KJARTANSSON, THE VISITORS, 2012. PROJECTION VIDÉO NEUF CANAUX, 64 MN.
COURTOISIE DE L’ARTISTE, LUHRING AUGUSTINE, NEW YORK ET DE LA GALERIE I8, REYKJAVIK.
PHOTO : ELISABET DAVIDS
Born in 1976 in Reykjavík, where he lives and works
For another major component of the visual opera spread through the town, the Printemps de septembre is inviting The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson. On the banks of the Hudson, around the 19th-century Rokeby Manor, the film shows musicians, friends of the artist, performing a melody over a duration of an hour. Isolated but hearing each other on their headphones, they play a piece composed by Davíð Þór Jónsson and Ragnar Kjartansson and tirelessly repeat the same words, excerpted from performances by the artist’s former wife, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir: “Once again, I fall into my feminine ways.”
A powerful but subtle contrast is produced by these individual performances which gradually come together. Like carefully animated tableaux vivants, the projections offer a view into the privacy of each performance, each performer, while letting visitors become a part of the whole.