Satan is Real

A naked man is buried up to his waist in a meadow in a Reykjavík park. It is a picture-perfect day, with blue skies and white clouds, but Ragnar Kjartansson's body does not correspond at all to the usual ideals of beauty. He strums his guitar laconically and sings a single sentence in constant repetition for over an hour: "Satan is real - he's working for me". Every now and then children come by, eat ice cream, do cartwheels and sit down in front of the singer; obviously only slightly impressed by his bizarre performance. Kjartansson's parents were actors, as a child he often followed their rehearsals. It fascinated him how the meaning of a sentence changes in the constant repetition. Mantra-like repetitions, on the other hand, were also familiar to the very religious Kjartansson from church.

The line he sings is a variation of a 1959 Louvin Brothers gospel: "Satan is real, working in spirit / You can see him and hear him in this world every day / Satan is real, working with power / He can tempt you and lead you astray." In his performance, Kjartansson reverses the traditional power relationship, Satan becomes his command recipient. The absurdity and harmlessness of the scene pulverises the millennia of fear people have had of the Incarnate.

Satan is Real runs from 21 September to 18 October in the aquarium of the Edith Russ House. You can always see the work after sunset from Peterstraße, which is also known as Oldenburg's "Religion Mile" or somewhat derisively as the "Holy Mile".

The video installation will be shown as part of Iceland Encounters 2022.

Ragnar Kjartansson was born in 1976 in Reykjavík, where he now lives again. He works as an artist in the fields of performance, painting, sculpture, video art and music. His work has been shown at the Berlin Festival, Palais de Tokyo, New York Museum, Guggenheim Bilbao (2014), MoMA's PS1, among others. He was represented twice at the Venice Biennale.

Curated by Edit Molnár & Marcel Schwierin.