Ragnar Kjartansson

In his performances—which often extend over several weeks or months—the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson (born 1976 in Reykjavík, where he lives and works) explores not only his own physical and psychological limits and the essence of early performance art, but also the artist's status and the different images of his role. For his installation “The Schumann Machine” (2008), created for Manifesta 7, he spent several hours every day for two weeks singing the cycle of songs “Dichterliebe” (1840) by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). The characteristic features of his performances are the melancholy, but also absurdly comical moments.