Ragnar Kjartansson's The End (2009) is on view in the exhibition Ragnar Kjartansson: Song. Image courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.

EXHIBITION-RELATED PERFORMANCE

RAGNAR KJARTANSSON: An die Musik

Icelandic artist and musician Ragnar Kjartansson will stage An die Musik, a multi-hour performance, in the ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. First staged at the Migros Musuem in Zurich, Kjartansson sings composer Franz Schubert’s An die Musik, an ode to art as a refuge from the stress and strain of everyday life, in constant repetition for four hours. The artist will be joined in this herculean task by fellow Icelandic musician Davíð Þór Jónsson and several Boston-area singers and pianists.

Audience members are free to wander in and out of the performance space, enjoying the sublime noise of a dozen musicians playing at once, while watching the euphoric endurance of excessive repetition.

The performance is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Ragnar Kjartansson: Song.