Ragnar Kjartansson will exhibit a piece titled "The End" at the 2009 Venice Biennale. It will feature a tableau vivant of the artist relentlessly painting a portrait of a young man posing in a bathing suit, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer over the entire six-month duration of the Biennale. The painting sessions will take place in the Icelandic Pavilion, transforming it into a makeshift studio. Kjartansson will limit his artistic production during this time to painting this recurring scene, with previous days' paintings accumulating around the studio.

1. RAGNAR KJARTANSSON:
THE END
Palazzo Michel dal Brusa
Icelandic Pavilion at the
Venice Biennale 2009
Music: “Fjarkanistan by Animamina

2. philosophy
• Kjartansson’s exhibi:on for Venice, en:tled The End, will feature a tableau
vivant of the ar:st and his model that will last for the en:re six‐months of
the Biennale, along with a monumental video and music installa:on. It will
be presented in the Palazzo Michiel dal Brusà, a 14th‐century palazzo on
the Grand Canal near the Rialto, which has served as the Icelandic Pavilion
since 2007. Transforming the Pavilion into a makeshiU studio for the
Biennale, Kjartansson will relentlessly paint the portrait of a young man
posing day aUer day against the backdrop of the Grand Canal. The young
man modeling for him will be smoking cigareVes and drinking beer, while
clothed only in a bathing suit. For six months, Kjartansson will limit his art
produc:on to the pain:ng of this scene. He will produce one work aUer
the other, with the pain:ngs made on previous days leU to accumulate in
piles around the studio. Though not an idealized version of the ar:st and
his model – such a proposal being disrupted by the incongruous
appearance of the Speedo, the cigareVes, and the beer in an otherwise
roman:c seZng – the performance is par:ally based on ques:ons of the
ar:st’s self, sugges:ng his perpetual re‐conceptualiza:on in rela:on to his
surroundings and previously exis:ng works of art.

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