Performance night: Ragnar Kjartansson and Friends: The Palace of the Summerland

exhibition open until midnight Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (TBA21) is embarking once again on an epic megalomanic journey through the heart of Iceland's artistic soul. The Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and his group of 16 of the most talented artists, musicians, and friends will present – in fact create and live – the visionary durational performance project titled The Palace of the Summerland at TBA21–Augarten. They will be performing non-stop for four weeks during April at the exhibition venue, transforming it into an Fellini-type studio, an art factory. A hopeless task – a true disaster The Palace of the Summerland is the making of an epic movie on the budget of a soft-porn film, based on Halldór Laxness’s novel World Light. It's a tale of glorious failure, revealing the growing pains of an artist surrounded by nothing but misery and brutality. But this artist has a calling: he clings to something he describes as "the explosive sonics of divinity". Calling him towards beauty, nothing but divine beauty. "This novel is a big epic of political, romantic, modernist struggle", says Kjartansson. The team that the artist has assembled for this project is a robust group of some of Reykjavík’s most prominent artists, comedians, writers, and musicians. It is a gang of friends who have inspired him in his works. Beginning in April, they will leave behind their regular lives and join Kjartansson on a Fitzcarraldo-like journey. They will become The Palace of the Summerland by building it, acting it, and living it. Kjartansson’s father, the theater director Kjartan Ragnarsson, will also be there to help direct the scenes, so there will even be father-son tension. By visiting TBA21–Augarten at different times, the public will experience diverse situations: the team caught in the middle of a rehearsal; Kjartansson with his father introducing the filming of a certain scene; musicians rehearsing a score composed by Kjartan Sveinsson, the composer and former member of Sigur Rós; the production of sets, costumes, and props: literally the entire production process in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. “It will be a factory where we are building, acting, and filming an impossibly big story on beauty. The drama is on-site. We are making an epic on a soft porn budget, surrounded by the audience. It is a hopeless task. A true disaster.” (Ragnar Kjartansson) The Palace of the Summerland Team/Crew/Actors Ragnar Kjartansson Christopher McDonald Lilja Gunnarsdóttir Kjartan Ragnarsson Davíð Þór Jónsson Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir Halldór Halldórsson Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson Kjartan Sveinsson Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir Anna Hrund Másdóttir Margrét Bjarnadóttir Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir Thelma Marín Jónsdóttir Tómas Örn Tómasson Sólveig Katrín Ragnarsdóttir María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir

Performance night

TBA21 Augarten
1020 Wien, Scherzergasse 1A
Tel: +43 1 513 98 56 – 24
Email: exhibitions@TBA21.org
http://www.TBA21.org
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 12 - 19 h

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