Do you know Jónsi, the Icelandic musician Jón Þór Birgisson, who received international recognition as the frontman of the band Sigur Rós? He is also a multimedia artist whose first solo exhibition in Europe opened at the Reykjavík Art Museum’s Hafnarhús (Listasafn Reykjavíkur – Hafnarhús) in collaboration with the Reykjavík Arts Festival 2024 on June 1st, 2024. FLÓÐ (Flood) consists of four installations based on sound and light, three of which are being shown for the first time.

Born in Iceland in 1975, Jón Þór „Jónsi“ Birgisson lives and works in Los Angeles.

„I’ve been a musician forever—I’ve been in the band for 30 years now, Sigur Rós,“ he said in an interview with the Reykjavík Grapevine. „I’ve always been interested in visual arts. When you live in Iceland, you’re surrounded by artists. It’s something you can’t avoid.“

“Flóð is a spatial, scent, and sound sculpture, with my main inspiration being the ocean… and the ocean being this ominous and mysterious force that plays a central role in our Icelandic lives. It’s basically about ‘the big wave,’ a wave that takes us all and destroys everything in its path. The effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, flooding, melting glaciers, and intensified natural disasters, are happening all around us, and this piece is a reflection of that dire reality,” Jónsi explains.

„In his exhibition FLÓÐ (Flood), there are four works from 2023-2024, three of which occupy their exhibition galleries at the Reykjavík Art Museum’s Hafnarhús, while one is placed outside by the entrance. Nature is at the forefront, both as a subject and material. Impressions are drawn from external and internal processes such as wind, tides, daylight, and tectonics, but also from breathing and the flow of the body. The works are man-made, yet their effect on the audience is equivocal and multi-layered, akin to an experience of nature. They appeal to different senses and evoke a deep connection between humans and the environment, here and now, in a non-stop cycle. Some forces at work are stirring beneath the surface and can erupt and spill over us with unpredictable consequences,” the exhibition explanation states.

Jónsi, Jón Þór Birgisson (b. 1975), gained international recognition at the beginning of his career as the frontman of the band Sigur Rós. For the past two decades, he has collaborated with musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers across various mediums of art. Together with his family, Jónsi has been running the perfume house Fischersund since 2017. While Jónsi is primarily known for his work in music, over the last five years he has focused on translating his experiments with music and sound into spatial experiences within the realm of visual art. He has held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, the Nordic Museum in Seattle, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. He has been living in Los Angeles, USA, for the past few years.

The exhibition will be on view until January 25, 2025.