Reykjavik Arts Festival
Material Time/Work Time/Life Time
Dieter Roth: A Private Exhibition
Opening May 14, 2005
www.artfest.is
The Reykjavik Arts Festival announced that this year’s program, on view from May 14 2005, will focus on contemporary visual arts after three decades of festivals dedicated to the performing arts. A series of exhibitions and installations will be presented in Reykjavik and throughout the country, focusing on the legacy of Dieter Roth, the German-born Swiss artist who spent a large part of his life in Iceland, and who influenced both established and younger artists. Curated by Jessica Morgan, curator of contemporary art at Tate Modern, London, a multi-venue program of newly-commissioned work will be entitled Material Time/Work Time/Life Time and will present throughout Iceland an outstanding selection of national and international contemporary artists. Running concurrently, a Dieter Roth retrospective entitled Dieter Roth, A Private Exhibition will be curated by Bjorn Roth, the son of the artist, and will be presented at several venues in Reykjavik.
Material Time/Work Time/Life Time brings together over 30 artists from Iceland, Europe and North and South America whose work shares Roth’s interest in collapsing the boundaries between art, life, and materiality. The artists include both Roth’s contemporaries and a recent generation such as Peter Fischli and David Weiss, John Latham, Thomas Hirschhorn, Micol Assael, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, and Gabriela Fridriksdottir who will represent Iceland at the 2005 Venice Biennale. New works commissioned specifically for this festival examine the themes and inspirations at stake in Roth’s work. More than 20 venues and sites in Reykjavik, its surroundings and other major Icelandic towns, will host this exhibition, and most sites will focus on the work of only one or two artists. Olafur Eliasson and Margret Blondal will each present sculptural installations in outdoor locations. German artists Jonathan Meese and John Bock will develop new performances while Lawrence Weiner will show new work responding to the well known Icelandic sagas. Film and video are the chosen media of Anri Sala and Wilhelm Sasnal who blend documentary, narrative, and autobiographical techniques. In an unusual collaboration, Matthew Barney will present an installation conceived with Gabriela Fridriksdottir. Other artists participating in the exhibition are Jeremy Deller and Allan Kane, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Kristjan Gudmundsson, Elin Hansdottir, Carsten Holler, Hekla Dogg Jonsdottir, Haraldur Jonsson, Brian Jungen, On Kawara, Ragnar Kjartansson, Gabriel Kuri, Anna Lindal, Olafur Arni Olafsson, Libia Perez de Siles de Castro, Finnbogi Petursson and Bojan Sarcevic.
The Dieter Roth retrospective entitled Dieter Roth, A Private Exhibition will be featured at two of Iceland’s largest museums: The National Gallery of Iceland and Reykjavik Art Museum, as well as in Gallery 100º, a renowned gallery, all in Reykjavik.
Most of the exhibitions will be on view through July/August.
Festival Sponsors: Kaupthing bank is the Presenting Sponsor of the visual arts program of the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2005.
For more information about the Reykjavik Arts Festival, please call +354 561 2444 or visit their website at www.artfest.is
Media Contacts
For further information, interviews and images, please refer to the following contacts:
Antoine Vigne or Catherine Krudy
Blue Medium, Inc.
T: +1 212 675-1800
F: +1 212 675-1855
E: antoine@bluemedium.com or catherine@bluemedium.com
Gudrun Kristjansdottir
PR and Communications Director
Reykjavik Arts Festival
T: +354 561 2444
F: +354 562 2350
E: gudrun@artfest
Notes to the media:
Press Conferences Save the Dates:
Reykjavik: February 25
London: March 1
New York: March 11
Berlin: March 12
Copenhagen: Date to be confirmed
For invitations to the press conference, please email catherine@bluemedium.com
