International Superstar, Ragnar Kjartansson, Premiere Visit in Bucharest on March 18th  

“The Visitors” – the famous artwork presenting the eccentric Icelandic artist playing the guitar in a bathtub takes the Named by the Washington Post as a contemporary art superstar and ranked the 1^st in The Guardian’s list of best artworks of the century with its video installation “The Visitors”, the famous artist Ragnar Kjartansson comes to Bucharest on March 18^th  for an artist talk and to present one of the most exciting video works – “Bliss” (2020) to the Romanian public.

The video screening of the artwork will be held on March 18^th at ARCUB’s Sala Mare. It will run from 11.00 am to 11.00 pm on without any interruption, completely aligned to the original live performance, a 12 hours resilience marathon for the vocal performers and orchestra that was presented for the first time in New York, in 2011.

The public is welcomed at ARCUB foyer from 17:00 for an artist talk session, where he will reveal the stories behind his works and to watch the video screening – either for 12 minutes or 12 hours, up to their choice. Visitors are encouraged to come back during the day to check how the full-length video-recorded performance transforms along the way. Admission to the event is free.

“Bliss” is a video masterpiece based on the eponymous performance by Kjartansson and represents a staging of the final aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The work replicates the opulence of a traditional opera production, with an orchestra, lavish sets, Rococo costumes, and is presented by an ensemble of vocal performers, the artist included. They perform the same three-minute aria consecutively for 12 hours. As a result of this extreme form of repetition, the aria undergoes a metamorphosis, starting out with an elegant interpretation and gradually moving towards an ironic and then ecstatic style. Ultimately, it returns to its original delicacy but remains imbued with the emotional and physical weight of a 12-hour uninterrupted performance.

Regarded as one of the most fascinating and prominent figures in contemporary art, Ragnar Kjartansson masters multiple genres, artistic mediums, and roles, assuming not only the role of a visual artist, but also that of a director, musician, or actor in his works. His artistic practice focuses on theatricality and ritual, as well as their common traits: repetition and endurance. He has had solo exhibitions in prestigious locations, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Reykjavík Art Museum, Barbican Centre (London), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Park (Washington), Palais de Tokyo (Paris).

About “The Visitors”, the best work of the century

“The Visitors” was named by The Guardian as “the craziest party ever thrown at home”. In the summer of 2012, the artist gathered a group of musicians at Rokeby, a historic estate in the Hudson Valley. By the end of a week, they had created a multi-screen video installation that was acclaimed as one of the defining works of our time.The experience consists in a dark gallery with nine large screens, of which eight show the musicians, connected only through headphones, playing in unison for an hour-long piece.

The event in Bucharest is organized under the umbrella of “Accelerator. Mentoring and Production for Emerging Artists” programme, implemented by Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus, in partnership with GAEP gallery and i8 (Reykjavík), one of the galleries that represents Kjartansson. Accelerator is the first and most complex extended mentorship program currently running in Romania, which aims to boost the careers of 10 Romanian emerging artists.