AQUA – SILENCE “The work is a video installations presented on, seven LED stele in front of OSRAM Head- quarters in Munich. It is a silent sequence – as its title suggests – of images of water in all its various forms: ocean waves, waterfalls and glaciers... Far less quiet is the message of the artist, who in her work examines the fragile relationship between nature and mankind”.
The work touches the many aspects of water - The images are powerful and poetic, as is nature; ocean waves, waterfalls and glaciers are brought into Munich. Aqua - Silence offers a layered comprehension; the visual level involving form and colour and the shifting of these - the emotional - the intellectual and conceptual - time and timelessness…
The screens are located where Munich litterally meets the rural surrounding, a popular recreational area, with the river Isar flowing only a couple of hundred meters away. Meanwhile the automobile traffic towards the city centre flows constantly alongside the installation. This is where urban and rural meet, and simultaneously the nature and technology meet in the artwork, the high tech LED screens and sophisticated software meet the primal force and beauty of water in its many appearances, from droplets to glaciers. The installation is the seventh of its kind to be presented at the SEVEN SCREENS – Osram Art Projects, since these were created in 2006. The seven steles with a height of six meters each and equipped with LED systems on both sides are based on the green between the OSRAM headquarters and the Mittlerer Ring in the south of Munich. inauguration and first screening; April - November 2009.
Water Story Vocal V 2008 The work is a combination of a multi media performance, video installation and audio. The work is made in cooperation with composer Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, and was performed by Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson; keyboard, Hilmar Orn Agnarsson; church organ, Gerd Kötter; second organ and keyboard, Ruri; vocal, guest artist Markus Zahnhausen; block flute. The video which is projected onto translucent textiles stretching across the nave of the church shows waterfalls and high voltage electronic installations and cables. An important part of the work is that the musicians improvise on the instruments within the frame defined by the composer and the artist.
Duration 40 min. The video is made in cooperation with Fridthjofur Helgason and Páll Steingrímsson; filming, and O. Ragnar Halldorsson; editing exhibition venue: Rúrí - Water Story Vocal V, and Changing Waters
installation location: Water Story Vocal - V and Changing Waters by Rúrí, St. Lukaskirche Munich, curator Serafine Lindemann/ artcircolo www.overtures.de,
Performance by “Sequences 2008” honorary artist Ruri, in collaboration with Johann Johannsson, composer. This multi media performance is until now the most complex one in the Vocal series, (Endangered Waters) which Ruri started in 2005, with a large multi layered video projection and another smaller on a side wall of the space, performing artists appearing on the main floor and on the balconies that protrude into the space on its first floor. Performed by Johann Johannsson, conducting and guitar, Matthias Hemstock and Steingrimur Gudmundsson, percussion on Sound Shapes, Petur Hallgrimsson, Hilmar Jensson and S. Bjorn Blondal, guitar and Gudmundur Vignir Karlsson on keyboard. Nylokorinn directed by Hordur Bragason, vocalization and performing (24 persons) and Ruri filming; Fridthjofur Helgason, Pall Steingrimsson and Ruri editing; O. Ragnar Halldorsson, Kvik film productions
Flooding – Nature Lost 2008 A new work in Ruri’s series of works “Endangered Waters”. Water and waterfalls have been a major source of inspiration in her art for years, and here she uses two video projections, three video screens and a surround audio system to present the waterfall Toefrafoss which recently disappeared under the rising waters of an enormous man-made reservoir. This waterfall is just one of many that have fallen victim to a single demonstration of technological power. In this work Ruri documents using video and audio, and presents in an installation how industrial interests are bringing about the flooding of a unique highland ecosystem causing its unalterable destruction. Even though the artist focuses the camera on waterfalls in her own country, Iceland, the Endangered Waters works are simultaneously local and global in concept.
The work is made in cooperation with; Kvik Film Productions, cameraman Fridthjofur Helgason.
