The Sound of a Bugle in a Shoebox: Magnús Pálsson - A Performance Retrospective 1980-20131980 – 2013

Magnús Pálsson (b. 1929) has been one of Iceland‘s most influential artists for the last sixty years, working on the boundary of theatre, music and art. Along with the Swiss artist Dieter Roth (1930-1998) he took a leading part in the transformation of Icelandic art in the 1960s and 1970s. A founding member of the Living Art Museum, he is widely reg­arded as one of the most influ­ential teachers of art in Iceland. He was Iceland’s representative at the Venice Biennale in 1980 and has held over 40 one-​​man exhi­bitions in Iceland and abroad.

Pálson's roots in the theatre medium have informed his art­istic output, but so has his dedication to experi­mentation and his unfailing belief in the non-​​segregation of art forms. Theatre, music, poetry, visual art and chor­eography all lie within the same experi­mental space that is Pálsson’s app­roach to art.

The exhibition includes video recordings of the performances featured in the festival and introduces archival materials from Pálsson’s collection.Tt is co-​​produced by the Reykjavík Arts Festival and the Reykjavík Art Museum, in close colla­boration with Pálsson himself. The exhi­bition opened on 18 May and took shape over a week of live per­form­ances, including the premiere of a new per­formance by Pálsson.