Performance: Take Me Here by the Dishwasher - Memorial for a Marriage

The third and last performance that is a part of the exhibition God, I Feel So Bad by Ragnar Kjartansson at Reykjavík Art Museum, Hafnarhús, starts on Saturday, 9 September and is shown until Sunday, 24 September.

Ten musicians sing and play the guitar over a two-weeks period. They are spread throughout the gallery, each as in his own world, yet in one harmony. Some are sitting on the floor, others in chairs or sofas, others still lying on mattresses on the floor, empty beer bottles piling up around them.

A video projection comprised of a three-minute loop is playing behind them, featuring a soft-focus love scene between a man and a woman set in a kitchen. The clip is from the first all-Icelandic full-length feature film, Morðsaga (Murder Story) from 1977, and the actors in the scene are Kjartansson’s own parents.

Family lore has it that the artist was conceived at the time the film was shot. He invited songwriter and composer Kjartan Sveinsson to transform the hackneyed dialogue into a ten-part polyphonic score for troubadours. The work was originally performed at BAWAG P.S.K Contemporary, Vienna.

Free with admission.

The exhibition is supported by GAMMA.