Ragnar Kjartansson: Endless Longing, Eternal Return and Frontiers of Another Nature

Ragnar Kjartansson
Endless Longing, Eternal Return

Frontiers of Another Nature – Contemporary Photographic Art from Iceland

19 August–16 October 2011

Joint Opening:
18 August 2011, 7 pmFrankfurter Kunstverein
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg
Markt 44
60311 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
www.fkv.de

On the occasion of Iceland’s invitation as guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, the Frankfurter Kunstverein presents the major solo exhibition Ragnar Kjartansson: Endless Longing, Eternal Return. The exhibition comprises more than fifteen video works, image series and installations of the past ten years by the well-known Icelandic artist, including a new sculptural work produced especially for the show.

Grand gestures, dramatic feelings, and emotional intensity are central to Kjartansson’s work, which is rooted in the tradition of existential performance. Many of his works thus concern literary, musical, or gestural moments of emotion or pure expression performed or endured to the point of exhaustion. As in his month-long continuous performance at the 2009 Venice Biennale, repetition, time loops, and the associated theme of endurance, pushes himself and his audience to physical and psychological limits, suspending them in an ambivalent state of happiness and mourning, beauty and horror, humor and drama.

CURATED BY: Holger Kube Ventura, Director Frankfurter Kunstverein
MADE POSSIBLE BY: The exhibition takes place as part of the arts and culture program “Fabulous Iceland – Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011.”

At the same time, the exhibition Frontiers of Another Nature – Contemporary Photographic Art from Iceland, a cooperation with Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, presents nine Icelandic photographic and multimedia artists who address landscape and man-made environments in their work. The exhibition explores how the photographic arts are an essential means for examining the undeniably complex relationship of Icelanders to their natural environment. “Frontiers of Another Nature” introduces ambiguous environments in which the photographers investigate and build visual narratives around the expanse of land, or the loss of it. Here, the landscape often acts as metaphor for desire, alienation, magnificence and awe, tradition, irony or rebellion.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Bára Kristinsdóttir, Einar Falur Ingólfsson, Haraldur Jónsson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Icelandic Love Corporation, Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson, Katrin Elvarsdóttir, Pétur Thomsen, Spessi.

CURATED BY: Celina Lunsford, Artistic Director, Fotografie Forum Frankfurt and Christiane Stahl, Director of the Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung in cooperation with Inga Lára Baldvinsdóttir, Curator of Photography, National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík and María Karen Sigurðardóttir, Director of the Museum for Photography, Reykjavík
CATALOGUE: A bilingual catalogue accompanies the exhibition, ed. by Celina Lunsford, Christiane Stahl, and Kristján B. Jónasson, with a text by Christiane Stahl. Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, August 2011.
MADE POSSIBLE BY: The Exhibition is a production of the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt in cooperation with the Frankfurter Kunstverein. It is part of the arts and culture program “Fabulous Iceland – Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011.”

OPENING HOURS: Tues, Thurs and Fri: 11 am–7 pm, Wed: 11 am–9 pm and Sat and Sun: 10 am–7 pm
INFORMATION: www.fkv.de
PRESS CONTACT: Julia Wittwer (Head of PR), Anna Goetz (Assistant)
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Steinernes Haus am Römerberg, Markt 44, 60311 Frankfurt / Main, Germany
Phone: +49.69.219314–30/-40, fax: +49.69.219314–11, e-mail: presse@fkv.de

*Image above:
Courtesy of the artist, i8 Gallery, Reykjavik and Luhring Augustine, New York.