Ragnar Kjartansson: The Brown Period
The Brown Period is a yearlong exhibition by Ragnar Kjartansson at i8 Grandi. This presentation, which is Kjartansson's sixth solo show at i8, opened on 18 January and will be on view until 18 December 2025. Throughout the year, the artist will exhibit both new and existing works.
The Brown Period is an extended project, intended to be a dive into the realms of the experimental. As i8 Grandi is a short walk from Kjartansson's studio, the artist will treat the gallery as a project space where lucky strikes and failure collides. For the artist, the bass drum in the project space will be new video works and studio shorts, mixing drama, music, and cinematic indulgence. The works on view will continue to change throughout the year as the show evolves.
The current presentation features two works by Kjartansson, exhibited for the first time in Iceland: Schmerz (2022) and Hvad har vi dog gjort for at ha’ det så godt (2023) and in both works, Kjartansson and his friend, Icelandic star comedian Saga Garðarsdóttir, repeatedly ask, “What have we done to deserve this?” for hours on end, but with a radically different tone and setting.
When you enter the gallery you are confronted with Schmerz (2022) or Pain. Kjartansson performs with, Garðarsdóttir and musician Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, a single dramatic moment, set in a Bruegel like European fairytale cottage on lake Zurich. It is standard classic opera of absurd pain and anguish contrasted with a beautiful summer’s day in the world’s most perfect and affluent city. The sentence which the man sings or says “Was hab ich gemacht” or “what have I done” is answered with the woman’s “Nein!” or “No!”. A situation of regret and misery affirmed in the most charged of languages, German.
In May 2023, Kjartansson and Garðarsdóttir performed for eleven-hours in a perfectly designed 20th century Scandinavian room, The Brown Period overlooking the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. Throughout, the turntable plays a heartwarming old song, “Hver dag er en sjælden gave” (“Every day is a rare gift”, 1939) performed by Icelandic-Danish singer Elsa Sigfúss.
The two play a couple continuously repeating the Danish phrase: “Hvad har vi dog gjort for at ha’ det så godt?” or “What have we done to deserve this?”. Sometimes they just say “Hvad har vi dog gjort”, “What have we done”. The phrase, used by Danes to acknowledge their luck, privilege or thankfulness, is an interesting rarity of expression. In the performance the repetitive question engages elements of situational brutality. An ideal situation in a world of death and misery.
Spanning far longer than traditional museum or gallery shows, i8 Grandi's programming focuses on concepts of space and time. The sustained duration of the annual format allows artists to consider how time affects their work, and the fluidity encourages audiences to revisit the changing installations. Kjartansson's is the fourth yearlong presentation at i8 Grandi, following exhibitions by Andreas Eriksson in 2024, B. Ingrid Olson in 2023, and Alicja Kwade in 2022.
