Magnus Sigurdarson in Autumn Bulbs II Exhibition at Reykjavík Art Musuem

Magnús Sigurðarson OOPS! 2020 Hafnartorg

This September, Reykjavík Art Museum holds a group exhibition outside the museum walls for the second time. Eight artists present new work in a diverse and original manner around the city and in the public spaces made available through modern technology. This includes performances, interventions and various happenings. Instead of material sculptures, memorials or other permanent environmental artworks, the exhibition Autumn Bulbs II focuses on artworks created in more or less intangible media; they spread around the city and flourish in unexpected circumstances.

Rendered Experiences

The public sphere has changed. What is an experience?

Increasingly our experience of ́reality ́ is a rendered one, like in the curated series of selfies that we post to the world as a rendering of our wonderful lifestyle. As we find ourselves increasingly insulated from actual experiences like in the quarantine of COVID, we look to the artificial, the idealized, the rendered experience. In the end, not only is REALITY overrated, it doesn’t even make it onto the scale of our experience.

Art itself is increasingly based on the same alt-reality resources and materials that architects and engineers use to create a rendering of a building or neighborhood. In OOPS! the artist clashes with rendered experience of art. Did the pipe break? Does it matter if the audience experienced it as art? Will the few faces out on the streets today even look up to see it? In OOPS!, the artist plays with the ideas of an idealized experience and the role that art plays in it. Is the whole thing an OOPS!, or maybe the rendered accident will create a real experience for the viewer, whether it is the experience of an artwork, or a mild steam bath….

Janda Wetherington