The Visitors

The Visitors. A group of Icelandic musicians play a beautiful song in a decaying mansion in Upstate NY. Each musician is in a separate shot synced by headphones( good old Sony MDRs FTW) and probably Qbox as headphone amps -there ends my sound guy knowledge. Presented as 9 isolated images spread around four walls I can only fail to describe how beautiful this is. The iso audio tracks are played out of a speaker above each screen. Move around the room and change the mix you hear. Two pianos, a banjo, electric guitar(bonus naked woman sleeping), cello, accordion, drummer, crickets an acoustic guitar with an old pyro guy with a canon on the veranda, and head honcho Ragnar Kjartansson naked in a clawfoot bathtub singing with an acoustic guitar. 60 minutes of variations on a theme. It's a relentless exercise in arrangement and the power of repetition. Harmonies and instrumentation changing as we go along, it's fun to watch the audience turn heads or move around as the piece evolves. It's one of the most perfect and beautiful ART Installations I've seen in a long time(narrator: 'he doesn't see a lot of art installations'). Highest Recommendation.

If it shows up in your town SEE IT. I saw it at the SFMOMA. It's gone. It's co-owned by SFMOMA and The MOMA in NYC, so NYC friends expect to see it there soon.