| Katharina Klara Jung: Your last performance took place in the Volksbühne in Berlin. What was it about? Ragnar Kjartansson: It was a collaborative performance with my wife Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir. We were performing non-stop mega drama salon theatre in the entrance of the Volksbühne. It was called "It’s Not Your Fault." A piece made out of what both of us have been doing in the past in performances. It was the most "old school" theatrical performance placed in this avant-garde theater. |
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Somewhat Unreal – Katharina Klara Jung
Katharina Klara Jung: Your last performance took place in the Volksbühne in Berlin. What was it about?
Ragnar Kjartansson: It was a collaborative performance with my wife Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir. We were performing non-stop mega drama salon theatre in the entrance of the Volksbühne. It was called "It’s Not Your Fault." A piece made out of what both of us have been doing in the past in performances. It was the most "old school" theatrical performance placed in this avant-garde theater. With us was the great jazz pianist Jónsson doing dramatic score for the whole performance. We did it every night for a week before and after (also in the interval of) proper theatre performances.
KJ: “It’s Not Your Fault” and “Sorrow Conquers Happiness” are previous works. There is a definite tone of despair and even pleading in your works.
RK: Because life is sad and beautiful. My art is very much based on that view. It has always been. I love life; I love the despair of it. This "no win" situation we are in. “Weltschmerz” is probably the best word to describe what I am trying to say. All artists that thrill me have this feeling, from Prince to Bergman and back to Goethe. "Sad songs say so much."
KJ: You’ve performed “Sorrow Conquers Happiness” various times before and in July, you performed it again in Gallery Adler in Frankfurt.
RK: It is not a performance I repeated in Frankfurt. I did a performance called the same in Reykjavík this winter but the one in Frankfurt is different. The one in Reykjavik is a video piece. In Frankfurt and it was much more musical than the one I did in Frankfurt. The performances always change due to the space I am working with.
KJ: Sometimes, as in “The Great Unrest,” your performances go on for a month at a time.
RK: Time is an important element in my performances. I love to stretch a performance away from its theatre aspect. I like it when the performance feels endless. Like the monkeys in the zoo you watch and leave. I love the idea that something just stays in the same situation "live" for a long time. I am very inspired by the 70s endurance performances. I like endurance, the sport element of art. I am also raised in the theatre where they do the same thing for months. I always fancied when actors were practicing their scenes over and over, giving it the same emotions but always slightly better or slightly worse, never the same.
KJ: So you feel your art then really “produce” it in a more traditional sense?
RK: I love to produce in a traditional sense, super-traditional. You know sitting in front of a canvas smoking. But I never really feel an art piece is for real. It is like a performance I did when I was making the piece. My favourite thing is to work in my studio but it always feels like a performance, somewhat unreal.
KJ: You’re also lead singer of the band Trabant.
RK: I have always been in bands and doing art since I was a teenager. The band is a totally different kick than the art kick. It is just purifying fun to play rock and roll with your friends. I look at myself as a visual artist doing rock for fun and comfort. But the art is graceful solitude; it is like fishing, while music is like football.
