Watch: Ragnar Kjartansson on The Visitors and utopian dreams of the music industry

Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson reflects on his immersive multi-screen installation The Visitors.

Recorded amid the fading grandeur of Rokeby farm, a crumbling mansion house in upstate New York, Ragnar Kjartansson’s audio/visual installation premiered in the UK in November at The Vinyl Factory’s Brewer Street Car Park Space.

Open until the 6th December, the installation features a nine-channel video, each screen of which invites you into a room with one of Iceland’s pre-eminent musicians, playing his or her part in Kjartansson’s “feminine nihilistic gospel song” – a 50+ minute compositions that ebbs and flows within in an intricate, cinematic tableau. As he describes in this short film, the idea is one of a multi-channel visual mixer, where each part comes in and out of focus as you walk around the room.

Drawing in friends and collaborators, the installation also heralds Kjartansson’s new label, Bel-Air Glamour Records, which has already seen the release of Howl by múm vocalist Kristin Anna.

Watch the short film above and visit The Visitors yourself at The Vinyl Factory Space at Brewer Street Car Park, London, W1F 0LA. Entry is free and the installation is open from 12pm – 6pm every day until Sunday 6th December.