MAC 2016: Ragnar Kjartansson

RAGNAR KJARTANSSON

The Visitors

February 11 -  May 22, 2016

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is presenting Ragnar Kjartansson, an internationally recognized Icelandic artist who combines music, theatre, performance, visual arts and film in works filled with retrospect probings that unfold over time. The world he creates in his works conveys elements of irony and philosophical melancholy.

Born into a family of actors/directors, and having worked as a stage technician himself, Kjartansson is fascinated by the theatre, particularly the world behind the scenes. Also, the idea of repetition is a recurring motif in his work.

The centrepiece of the Montréal presentation, The Visitors, 2012, is a nine-channel video installation that revolves around a musical performance put on at Rokeby, a 19th-century mansion in upstate New York. For this impressive production that has attracted wide attention, the artist gathered a group of his musician friends and acquaintances from Reykjavik and beyond. Together, they perform Feminine Way, a long, tender, captivating poem, each playing their instruments in isolation in separate rooms. The audience finds itself in the midst of this recording session that offers an ode to friendship. The Visitors documents, in a single take, the 64-minute performance of the song.

This show is the artist’s first major museum exhibition in Canada, consisting of three large  video installations as well as a  musical/theatrical production which will be presented at Place des Arts for one evening only. The performance will take place on March 3, at 8 p.m. 

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For more information on this exhibition and the museum, visit the MAC website.