Vi är väldigt glada över att kunna presentera Sigurdur Gudjonsson på Galleri Rostrum. Det är första gången denna Isländska konstnär ställer ut i Sverige, annars har han ställt ut i spridda delar av världen.
Hans säregna film och video verk talar genom flera skikt, där ljudet är en viktig komponent. Med bild och ljud förflyttas man in i ett eget landskap som pyser och pyr, man kan både uppleva det mänskliga psykets förunderliga perspektiv från insidan, och kroppens rustning samt skörhet på utsidan. Det går att läsa ett kargt och tufft klimat både i natur och kultur.
Det finns mycket att skriva om/beskriva i Sigudurs konstnärskap men hemsida finns både information och möjligheter att själva se utsnitt och läsa mer om hans film och ljudverk: http://www.sigurdurgudjonsson.net
Ljudet på hemsidan kommer från albumet Leatherstreet som Sigurdur gjort tillsammans med Arnar Gudjonsson.

Sigurdur ställer också ut i Norge just nu:
http://www.kunstkritikk.no/kritikk/berattelser-fran-graven/

The videos, photographs and installations by the young Icelandic artist Sigurdur Gudjónsson (born 1975, lives in Reykjavik/Iceland) are atmospheric seductions.
They guide the viewer into a mysterious world, to dark places full of mystical figures.

Gudjónsson’s works seem to combine the old topos of his native country’s Nordic natural mysticism with the morbid, sinister side of Vienna, the city where he studied for several years. In his videos, the artist plays on the deliberately utilized cut and superimposing techniques to seize the viewer emotionally. But it is especially the equally important simultaneous interplay of film and sound elements that create an atmospheric arena.

While Gudjónsson’s videos depict persons acting in specific sites, his WORKS repudiate a linear narrative or unambiguous legibility. What remains are physically and emotionally experienced fragments that are joined to form a cryptic visual and acoustic symphony. Attention is given to the grotesque actions of the players and the unnoticed bystander, the viewer, who seems to become a witness to mysterious rituals. The mystical, almost spiritual mood appeals in a non-verbal and non-illustrative manner to states of mind on a universally experienced level.

Sigurdur Gudjónsson conceived a new video for the Kunstverein Langenhagen, “Bleak”, 2006: Two grotesque people in two different rooms are at the center of the grotesque situation. The communication between them regulates itself entirely on the emotional level of the viewer. In “Bleak”, Gudjónsson has largely omitted the transcending musical elements used in his most recent works. The sound consists almost entirely of material recorded while filming.

Once more, Gudjónsson refuses to present the view with a rational access. Seduced by a subtle ambiance, the viewer is left to confront his own emotional world.

© Dr. Christian Schoen, Juni 2006
CIA.IS – Center for Icelandic Art