FACT or FICTION
Ragnar Kjartansson: Scandinavian Pain and Other Myths
text and images courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum

Ragnar Kjartansson creates art that’s nothing less than evocative. Viewers around the world have been known to smile, laugh, cry, even cringe when they encounter his performative installations and paintings that break with what is often perceived as the seriousness and severity of contemporary art.
Valley residents now have the opportunity to experience some of Kjartansson’s performance-based artworks, including his renowned video installation, The Visitors. On view through April 14, Ragnar Kjartansson: Scandinavian Pain and Other Myths showcas\es three artworks by the Icelandic artist, and although each represents a different facet of his practice, all are quintessentially Kjartansson, examining the myth of identity through performance, music, humor and text.

“We are excited to share works by Ragnar Kjartansson with Phoenix Art Museum guests,” said Gilbert Vicario, the Selig Family Chief Curator and the curator of the exhibition. “Ragnar is one of the most interesting performance artists working today, and The Visitors is considered one of the best video installations of the last 20 years.”
Raised in the theater and a self-proclaimed fan of the blues, Kjartansson (b.1976) uses performance and humor to interpret and convey larger-than-life emotions, including themes of sadness and solemnity. One of his favorite topics to explore through his art is the idea of Scandinavian pain.
“There is something so sad about Scandinavia,” the artist said wryly in an interview with Louisiana Channel. “It’s like this ideal part of the world, but it is just so black. It’s Sad-inavia.”

Kjartansson examines this contradiction in identity most directly in the exhibition’s aptly named Scandinavian Pain (2006-2012). At 11 meters long, the bright pink neon sign was originally installed on a barn in Norway. Surrounded by trees and grass, and at times nearly engulfed by fog, it popped up in an otherwise bleak and gloomy landscape.
Now the monumental object stretches diagonally across the floor of the Museum’s Anderman Gallery. Removed from any roof, wall or outdoor space, the sign explores identity through language and color, representing an all-too perfect interpretation of the Scandinavian condition – a region marked by intense gloom but often perceived as home to “the happiest people on Earth.”



Above: Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors (a section of the installation), 2012. Nine-channel video. © Ragnar Kjartansson; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.
Through April 14
Ragnar Kjartansson: Scandinavian Pain and Other Myths
Phoenix Art Museum
www.phxart.org