ABSTRACT

Repetition plays a central role in Ragnar Kjartansson’s work – but not in the sense of a re-staging or re-enactment. Instead, a repetitive series of the same processes, actions, and scenes are a fundamental principle in many of his performances and especially in his long-duration performances. In her contribution, Sandra Umathum will focus on the way Ragnar Kjartansson conceives the relationship between these performances and their remains – arguing that through the specific organization of these performances on the one hand and their remains on the other, he not only puts into question the value of participating in these performances with respect to certain experiences, but also terminates the dominant hierarchy between the participation in a performance and the occupation with their remains. Ultimately, Umathum’s analysis aims to interrogate Kjartansson’s work as a complex assemblage shifting back and forth between the levels of materiality and temporality. Thus she moves the moments of media-shifts into the realm of artistic production – here, the acts of painting. These are inherent in the constant negotiations between performance, painting, and photography that Kjartansson’s actions provoke, not least by emphasizing that the practice of painting itself always occurs within mediated conditions.