FFF #6 – Kling og Bang (The Visitors) and Kaffibrennslan

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[Written 19 February 2014]

FFF #6 almost didn’t happen because it was such a busy weekend with the double birthday celebration etc. etc.

But, I’d been meaning to check out the gallery showing of The Visitors (YouTube, NYTimes) by Ragnar Kjartansson (and friends), having heard good things about it, and the kids were whining, so I decided to make a break for it.

I’m very glad that I did because this was so fun, lovely, technically impressive, and charming. Oh, Ragnar, why must you be so darn charming?! 🙂

Now, because this is Icleand, and Iceland has a tiny population, it should surprise nobody that Ragnar (anno 1976) and I attended the same high school/junior college. Now, I didn’t know him per se, but I certainly knew of him, and knew people that knew him.

It’s funny how some people are just incredibly noticeable right from an early age.

I haven’t really followed his work closely, but from what I’ve glimpsed over the years, one recurring theme in his works (which straddle the range from music to painting to installations to performance art) is repetition. (See painting the same guy in the same room in the same outfit once per day for six months, getting opera singers to repeat a famous operatic moment again and again for 12 hours – YouTube link).

This work had a lot of inbuilt repetition too, but not so that it felt gimmicky.

Basically, you walk into a large very dark room, where there are 9 large illuminated screens, set up such that some obscure others from view. On each screen is a musician/singer with headphones and they’re all performing/singing the same song, but each of them is in a separate room, so they’re united, but apart. (28 images total, 1 video)

A large dark room, with a surprising amount of people! (No, they’re not dancing, it’s just an animated gif!)

The song goes on for a very long time (total run time 64 minutes), mutating through highs and lows, quiet and loud. The lyrics aren’t complicated, and the same phrase/phrases are repeated over and over again. But as you walk around, you start to notice that each screen has it’s own loudspeaker, so that when you approach one of them, it’s like your stepping into that room, but you still hear all the others loud and clear. The rooms belong to an old manor, and they’re quite interesting to look at, with lots of stuff in them.

Video of a rather intense musical interlude as I walk around the room.

Now, it’s almost impossible to do this any kind of justice with still photos, but here goes:

I parked in the parking garage opposite three beautiful buildings. The gray one is the national theater. It’s a pity the parking garage is as ugly as it is.

I had to walk a short ways up Hverfisgata, which runs parallel to the main open air shopping street in Iceland, Laugarvegur. The whole downtown area is pretty ‘arty’ these days, but I don’t quite know what was up with that building.

The Danish Embassy. There are a few buildings in that ‘castle’ style downtown.

Some smart person decided that good graffiti was better than empty dirty or badly graffiti-ed walls.

A very dusty used bookstore.

My destination for the day: The Kling and Bang gallery.

Once inside (free admission!) I was surprised to find quite a lot of people there! (And you can see them much better in this picture than in real life. Yay for 12800 ISO!)

Ragnar himself had situated himself inside the room with the best voice acoustics - the bathroom of course!

Naturally, Ragnar had situated himself inside the room with the best voice acoustics – the bathroom!

People milling about.

To remove any kind of doubt that this was all shot in one take, the artists began moving out of their rooms towards the end of the song (but still singing the chorus), and they all congregated in one room to drink a bit of bubbly before…

... exiting the house and walking into the sunset, quite literally, all while still singing the refrain. And yes, of course, Ragnar's towel gets stolen from him quite a ways away, and there's an amusing Benny Hill moment of him chasing his towel.

… exiting the house and walking into the sunset, quite literally, all while still singing the chorus. And yes, of course, Ragnar’s towel gets stolen from him quite a ways away, and there’s an amusing Benny Hill moment of him chasing his towel.

After watching a technician walk around the house and turn the cameras off one by one, the videos restarted, and the cameras got turned on one by one a few minutes before the whole thing began again.

Charming mansion is charming.

Random person ‘sleeping’!

Outside it was getting twilighty, so I snapped a photo looking up Hverfisgata, while some foreigners chatted.

The street is under major construction to make it more bike and pedestrian friendly.

I walked up a block to Laugarvegur, and stumbled upon Kaffibrennslan, which I’d never entered before.

Yes, yet another cute cafe. They seem to be in never-ending supply, thankfully!

Yes, yet another cute cafe. Thankfully, they seem to be in never-ending supply!

Some patrons.

A most important wifi password!

The hot chocolate and carrot cake set me back 1480 isk (expensive!). The hot chocolate was surprisingly watery, scoring a 2.5 out of 5, but the carrot cake was supremely moist and most excellent!