Ragnar Kjartansson
Also Known As: not available
Biography: Ragnar Kjartansson is an Icelandic performance artist. He engages in multiple artistic mediums throughout his performative practice. Like video installations, performances, drawings, and paintings incorporate the history of film, music, visual culture, and literature.
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: Reykjavík, Iceland
Adult: No
Birthday: January 01, 1976
Age: 49 years old
Gender: Male
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Known For:
Death and the Children
Overview: Single-channel video, 4' 54"
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-01-01
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The Visitors
Overview: A celebration of creativity, community, and friendship, The Visitors (2012) documents a 64-minute durational performance Kjartansson staged with some of his closest friends at the romantically dilapidated Rokeby Farm in upstate New York. Each of the nine channels shows a musician or group of musicians, including some of Iceland’s most renowned as well as members of the family that owns Rokeby Farm, performing in a separate space in the storied house and grounds; each wears headphones to hear the others. As the music begins and repeats, individual players stop, start, and move between rooms. Viewed together, the individual videos present an ensemble performance Kjartansson calls a “feminine nihilistic gospel song.” The piece itself sets lyrics from a poem by artist Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Ragnar´s ex-wife, to a musical arrangement by the artist and Icelandic musician Davíð Þór Jónsson; the title comes from a 1981 album from Swedish pop band ABBA, meant to be its last.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2012-10-17
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The Medúlla Videos
Overview: Music videos for the album Medúlla. The medúlla videos. A documentary about the making of the "Triumph of a Heart" music video is also included as a bonus feature. Partially a mockumentary, the feature focuses on the auditions for the bar patrons who had to be able to make the noises and sound effects required for the live performance in the music video. The sound effects and noises used in the video were edited for a full remix released on the "Triumph of a Heart" CD single, titled the "Audition Mix". It is currently Björk's only DVD which features subtitles.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-01
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A Lot of Sorrow
Overview: Icelandic artist and musician Ragnar Kjartansson’s often intensely durational performance-based works manifest a rare synthesis of pathos and humor. A Lot of Sorrow is both a music video and an extended concert film, in which Brooklyn-based band the National performs its three-and-a-half minute ballad “Sorrow” on repeat for six hours. The band’s music and lyrics frequently conjure notions of romantic suffering and melancholy—themes common to Kjartansson’s emotive, theatrical work. As the hours pass and fatigue sets in, the musicians subtly alter their song; the original track is always recognizable but is also shown to be elastic and expressive rather than rigid. Kjartansson is sometimes visible in the role of roadie, offering water and food to the performers throughout the concert. Multiple camera angles grant the viewer access to both the perspective of the musicians and that of the audience, as the band and the crowd feed off each other’s energy with every repetition.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-05-05
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Satan Is Real
Overview: Kjartansson appears bare-chested and buried waist-deep in a Reykjavik public park. Strumming a guitar, he plaintively sings the line—“Satan is real; he's working for me”—repeatedly for 64 minutes. As he does so, children frolic around him.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-01-01
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I'll Be Your Mirror
Overview: Widow Chloe travels to Japan for work where she is welcomed by an old friend, Toshi. Sliding between the melancholy of loss and the awe of perspectives changed, Chloe wanders an unfamiliar landscape where love has carved all the guiding grooves.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2024-08-23
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