Ragnar Kjartansson (Reykjavik, Iceland, 1976) uses theatrical conventions and their paradoxes to create works that often examine emotions, imposture, the historical and the autobiographic, as well as the politics of representation. Employing simple strategies such as repetition or the recreation of an action from different scenarios and points of view, the artist produces situations that illuminate the very matter of spectacle. Repetition reveals nuances and variations with the gravity of a mantra and the richness of a kaleidoscopic image. His performances can last up to twelve hours, run continuously in the museum gallery for as long as the exhibition is open to the public, or be recreated every five years. Humor and the absurd appear in his work to amplify and distort meaning.
The tension between fiction and lie, spectacle and confession, person and character is the common thread that runs through the performances, installations, videos and paintings in this exhibition by Kjartansson, the first in Latin America. The title of the exhibition is a reference to "Theatre Impressions," a poem by the 1996 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wislawa Szymborska. In the closing lines, the poet evokes the power of theater once its illusions are revealed and it grows in its artifice: "But the curtain's fall is the most uplifting part / the things you see before it hits the floor: / here one hand quickly reaches for a flower, / there another hand picks up a fallen sword." As is the case in several of Kjartansson's plays, theater is at once simulation and truth.
Curated by: José Luis Blondet
Curatorial Assistant: Lena Solá Nogué.
