Last days of the exhibitions The Enclave and Some New Works at Hafnarhús

Sunday, 1 January 2017 is the last day of two exhibitions at Reykjavík Art Museum, Hafnarhús: The Enclave by Richard Mosse and Some New Works by Örn Alexander Ámundason in Gallery D.

The Enclave
The six-channel video installation, shot in eastern Congo, is an immersive 40-minute of ghostly psychedelic magenta landscape blighted by human tragedy in Congo. In addition, a selection of large format photographs from The Enclave will also be on view. Mosse travelled in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo over four years (2010-14), following and living with paramilitary groups in a warzone riddled with ethnic conflict, massacres and systematic sexual violence.

Debuting at the Venice Biennale in 2013, where Mosse represented Ireland, The Enclave is a beautiful and haunting look at a region of Africa that has been plagued by civil war, political instability and humanitarian crises for decades.

Some New Works
In Some New Works, Ámundason stages the exhibition with some new pieces. He adds an unconventional, yet genuine account telling viewers about the artworks they see and the ones they might not be seeing. In his statement, Ámundason “wonders if it’s relevant what one presents in an exhibition. And if what is exhibited isn’t relevant, how should one decide what to exhibit and how to exhibit it.”

Ámundason deliberately stages instances with twists by doing actions as common as walking around with a stick, having a conversation, or chewing biscuits. Ámundason captures the nuances of imperfect moments precisely through repetitions in his performative art, and in similar manners he unfolds the vulnerable disposition over and over again with “debris” or “blemish” that is his artwork.