Story And Drama As Tools For Human Existential Exploration – Iceland To Host Bjork Exhibition Next Summer

Björk. Photo courtesy of Reykjavík Arts Festival.

The National Gallery of Iceland will be host to a Björk exhibition next year. Along with a museum exhibition by mask-maker James Merry, a first for the craftsman who makes many of Bjork’s face and head coverings, the Echolalia display will comprise four rooms dedicated to the artist’s work. The galleries will showcase work that draws on album concepts from her new record, so far untitled, and some previous work that still resonates with firm creative influence.  
 
Two galleries designed from Björk’s 2022 album Fossora are presented. The first room is about life and nature’s ever moving cycles. Called Ancestress, the room carries imagery of sweeping landscapes and crimson dancers lamenting across them. With gongs and synchronised movement, the choreograph explores deep emotion and nature as related. A second design dives into a nine-piece choral work that Bjork produced to celebrate the life of her mother. Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir was an environmental activist who died in 2018. The music, called Sorrowful Soul, projects each chorister's voice into an individual speaker which combines in a group to produce the ensemble of nine.  
 
Coinciding with the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2026, the Björk​ exhibition at the National Gallery of Iceland will be available from 30th of May to 20th of September. With a fantastic career that spans five decades, the multimedia artist reveals infinite depths to her inventiveness and character. It’s certainly the case that there won’t be anything else like it.  
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