The Egg or the Hen, Us or Them, 2011

There is no line dividing living materials and the so called dead. There is a straight line from magma to humans. Everything that is on the planet comes from magma (...). the fact that the stones talk in my work, is because humans … and wait, here it comes … are walking and talking stones.

In The Egg or the Hen, Us or Them the space is densely populated with talking and singing stones. They engage in dialogue and exchange views about their essence, their desires and their dreams. In this work, Egill Sæbjörnsson takes a different view on a seemingly lifeless mass of rocks. He enables it to lead a life of its own; their weight, tangibility and other traits influencing the world in significant ways. The Egg or the Hen, Us or Them flips the usual subject-object relation around, turning it into a subject-subject relation, enabling us to become observers of their peculiar little world. Nothing is as expected in this fantastic universe. Play and experiment, humour and earnestness melt together and a new microcosm opens up.

In his book STONES, 2012 Sæbjörnsson continues his argument, stating that artworks - much like stones - are also alive. Also they can be seen as a ‘species’ coexisting alongside human beings, influencing us, just like we influence the development of the arts.

From Feb 13 - Feb 21, 2018 the installation/performance is continuously on view in the Soetezaal during opening hours of the exhibition. The duration of the full performance is 37 min. but you are free to walk in and out as you wish. No reservation required.

Egill Sæbjörnsson (IS)
°1973

Egill Sæbjörnsson lives and works in Berlin and Reykjavik. In his work he combines music, sculpture, video projection and animations, as well as his own performance – whether as a mime artist, speaker, actor, musician, or singer – to create fictional spatial narratives. Theatrical, poetic and playful, ordinary dormant objects come alive in Sæbjörnsson’s works – be they plastic buckets, a wall, rough stones or handbags – drawing the viewer into a wondrous world where the real and the imagined collide. Sæbjörnsson represented Iceland at 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Furthermore his works and performances have been shown at The Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein, The Baryshnikov Art Center in New York, Oi Futuro in Rio de Janeiro, PS1 MoMA, Kiasma in Helsinki and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.