Ragnar Kjartansson: World Light

Ragnar Kjartansson's World Light (2015) is on view at the Reykjavík Art Museum in Iceland through September 21, 2025.

The four–channel installation is an adaptation of the epic novel World Light (1937–1940) by the Nobel Prize–winning Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness and mirrors the structure of the novel's four volumes. This year (2025) marks the 10th anniversary of Kjartansson's work and the 70th anniversary of Halldór Laxness' Nobel Prize.

To create the work, Kjartansson directed a group of friends and family from the Reykjavík art scene during a month-long performance at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) in Vienna. Titled The Palace of the Summerland, the performance was open to the public, which allowed people to simultaneously watch a show, its production, and backstage activity. The artwork created during the performance, World Light, delivers the same sense of oscillation between spheres, as not only do we see the actual shot, but also the moments before and after it. Every one of the recordings of the eighty-odd scenes of the film is screened unedited, regardless of how they turned out or how many times they needed to be repeated. The result is a “cubistic” film of sorts, a relentless and fragmented whole that, much like Laxness’s novel, touches on the epic range of human emotion and destiny.

To learn more about the exhibition, please visit the Reykjavík Art Museum website.