Reykjavik Art Museum presents the video work Reanimation (2010/2012/2013) by Joan Jonas. The video work Reanimation (2010/2012/2013) by Joan Jonas will be on view at Hafnarhús from September 6–11. The occasion is the artist’s participation in an event with Ragnar Kjartansson on September 11, where they will discuss how Halldór Laxness’s writing served as inspiration for the creation of independent artworks. The event is held in collaboration with Gljúfrasteinn museum. Reanimation draws on Halldór Laxness’s novel Under the Glacier (1968), in which the young messenger Umba is sent by the Bishop of Iceland beneath the Snæfellsjökull glacier carrying a tape to investigate the official conduct of Reverend Jón Prímus and his congregation. The journey becomes increasingly complex, and Umba gradually realizes that the boundaries between the real and the supernatural are no longer clear. Reanimation was first performed as a live performance in 2010, in collaboration with musician Jason Moran, and was later presented as an installation at Documenta 13 in 2012. In the video work, Jonas weaves together recordings from Norway, music, text, drawings, props, and reanimated videos from her past works. She appears on screen as narrator, magician, and prophet, guiding the audience through the cycle of life, where revival, resurrection, and haunting become part of an ongoing flow. With Reanimation, Jonas challenges conventional narrative forms and explores how folklore and mysticism offer ways of accessing knowledge and perceiving nature and reality. Joan Jonas (b. 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of performance and video art. She has had a profound impact on the development of contemporary art since the 1960s and is renowned for works that integrate movement, sound, text, and image. She has exhibited widely, including at Tate Modern, MoMA, and the Venice Biennale, where she represented the United States in 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery