Ragnar Kjartansson | 15th Shanghai Biennale

Ragnar Kjartansson will be featured in the 15th Shanghai Biennale, Does the flower hear the bee?, taking place at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai from November 8, 2025 through March 31, 2026.

The biennale's theme explores communication and intelligence within the art world, addressing the dynamic between the audience, exhibition, and environment. Does the flower hear the bee? aims to examine the intersections of differing models of intelligence, human and non–human, and to learn from both nature and culture.

Throughout Kjartansson's work across a range of mediums, which include video installations, drawings, paintings, as well as in his frequent use of durational, repetitive performance, he explores ideas related to beauty and its banality. A Boy and a Girl and a Bush and a Bird features Kjartansson and his longtime collaborator, Davíð Þór Jónsson, playing a small opus they composed in a rundown, but still functioning tropically, banana plantation on a freezing winter day in Iceland. Written by Kjartansson and Jónsson, the music is filled with longing and is a collage of quotes that range from Franz Kafka to Yoruba funeral songs, all culled from a letter by writer and poet Anne Carson, that she calls "four options for a chorus." Also included in the presentation are a number of large–scale paintings by Kjartansson from his Weekdays in Arcadia series, landscapes which are inspired by the time the artist has spent shepherding in the countryside of Iceland.

For more information about the exhibition, please visit the Power Station of Art website.