Between the Ears: My Mother and Me

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My Mother and Me

BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, My Mother and Me

Artist Ragnar Kjartansson reflects on 'the realness of fakeness' in his art.

Pejk Malinovski reflects on 'the realness of fakeness' in the art of Ragnar Kjartansson.

The Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson grew up in the theatre with an actress-mother who attuned him to what he calls "the realness of fakeness".   

The story goes that Ragnar was conceived during the filming of a sex scene involving his actor-parents, quaint footage of which was part of an installation during his acclaimed retrospective at the Barbican in 2016.  And Kjartansson's mother has been central to his work, in a series of films recorded every five years, called 'Me and My Mother'.

As an adult, he discovered that what held him was the situation created on stage, rather than the narrative: "I became interested in creating these situations that are sculptural," he explains of his move into performance art. 

In this 'radio happening' by the acclaimed Brooklyn-based Danish poet and producer Pejk Malinovski, we mirror in sound the highly staged expression of Kjartansson's art, the central relationship with his mother, his humour and heart.

Produced by Pejk Malinovski
Consulting editor: Sydney Viles 
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Three.

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