Iceland review - 2016, Qupperneq 22

20 ICELAND REVIEW
REWARDED FOR REPLAY
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We’re expecting a busy summer but you
can check-in 2 1/2 hours before departure
and have plenty of time for refreshments
and shopping in KEF.
We offer unlimited free Wi-Fi, many
charging stations and a range of nice
restaurants and stores. Icelandic design
and quality brands tax and duty free
at the Airport.
ART
Boring, mundane, fascinating… Repetition is a recurring
theme in the art of Ragnar Kjartansson. On June 17,
Iceland’s National Day, he was named Honorary Artist of
Reykjavík, 2016. He thereby joined the ranks of some of
Iceland’s most successful actors, authors, composers and
visual artists—Björk held the title in 2000.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE
Ragnar’s video works and art performances on a loop have
taken the international art community by storm. “With
repetition, narrative things like songs, concerts, or operas,
can lose their traditional form and become static—but
vibrant, like paintings or sculptures,” the artist explained
in an interview with Gavin Tomkins in The New Yorker in
April. “I often look at my performances as sculptures and
the videos as paintings.” The magazine featuring him was
yet another feather in Ragnar’s cap.
Born in 1976, Ragnar studied at the Iceland Academy
of the Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.
Performance art may define Ragnar’s career, but his art is
diverse and he makes use of various media in his creations,
including music, paintings, happenings, film, video and lit-
erature, as well as humor and mythical references. Heavily
influenced by theater—both of Ragnar’s parents work in
the performing arts—his live performances are said to
bridge the gap between traditional theater and visual art.
AROUND THE WORLD AND BACK
Complete with set design and costumes, Ragnar stages
extravagant shows, such as in Bliss, which earned him the
prize for the most innovative work in the 2011 Performa
Biennial, RoseLee Goldberg’s performance-art festival
Ragnar Kjartansson is the Honorary Artist of Reykjavík, 2016.
BY EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR.
PHOTO BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.
in New York. In the piece, ten singers, among them
Ragnar himself and Icelandic tenor Kristján Jóhannsson,
performed a scene from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, non
stop for 12-hours.
Ragnar’s 2013 exhibition The Visitors—a multi-chan-
nel video work showing different rooms in the historic
Rokeby mansion, inside each of which a sole musician
is playing an instrument—is considered to be his break-
through. Hugely successful, the exhibition is currently
on the road, having traveled to Argentina, Brazil, the
UK, Australia, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland—and
Iceland. Next year, Ragnar is planning a large private
exhibition at Reykjavík Art Museum. *