GABRÍELA FRIÐRIKSDÓTTIR. CREPUSCULUM
On the occasion of Iceland's presentation as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, the SCHIRN will dedicate a solo exhibition to this country's artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir. Her approach is characterized by the use of a variety of media: drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures figure as prominently as installations and performances.
The artist assembles different cultural, religious, and psychological elements to unfold a unique aesthetical canon of signs, forms, and meanings. This becomes particularly evident in her videos whose surreal scenarios, which abandon all classical narrative patterns, confront the viewer with wondrous worlds: dream images interweave with stories from Norse mythology, elements of sexual psychology are associated with the sphere of spiritual exercises, things of the past merge with the present. In the work Gabríela Friðriksdóttir is conceiving for the SCHIRN, original medieval manuscripts of Icelandic sagas combine with the artist's mysterious system of signs and a new film to a fantastic universe of its own.
CATALOG
Gabríela Friðriksdóttir approach is characterized by the use of a variety of media: drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures figure as prominently as installations, performances, and video films. In her works Friðriksdóttir assembles various cultural, religious, and psychological elements to unfold a unique aesthetic canon of signs, forms, and meanings. This becomes particularly evident in her films, whose surreal scenarios, abandoning all traditional patterns of narrative, confront the viewer with wondrous worlds in which dream images mingle with stories from Norse mythology and references to sexual psychology. For her films, Friðriksdóttir has repeatedly collaborated with the Icelandic pop star Björk. For the Schirn, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir has conceived a room entitled "Crepusculum" (dusk, twilight) in which medieval Icelandic manuscripts are combined with the artist's mysterious system of signs and a new film production to create a mystical landscape.