Ragnar Kjartansson

Bliss is the recording of a performance in which the three-minute-long final scene of Mozart’s comic opera The Marriage of Figaro is carried out for twelve consecutive hours. A veritable battle of endurance. Accompanied by an orchestra, the artist stands on stage with the singers, dressed in traditional opera costumes. Due to the continual retake of the famous scene consisting of a complex mix of both forgiveness and humiliation, the viewer ends up on an emotional rollercoaster. One in which the admission of guilt, mercy and relief keep on following each other in heavenly arias. Bliss, says the artist, is consequently a portrait of patriarchy: a vicious circle in which male dominance is forgiven time and again.