For the occasion of Therme Art x Messe in St Agnes, multimedia artist and musician Egill Sæbjörnsson has conceived a special site-specific artwork entitled Flying Waters.
This will involve a set of evocative and free-flowing water jets being projected onto the façade of the iconic Brutalist St Agnes church for the duration of Gallery Weekend Berlin and Berlin Art Week celebrations from 8–20 September. At Messe in St Agnes, visitors will also be able to see a model of The Mother, Egill’s immersive landmark installation currently in development for a Therme Group facility.
Flying Waters, uses the building as an all-encompassing blanket, with the “flying water” creating shapes and forms that interact with the built environment. As with other elements of the Therme Art x Messe in St Agnes programme, the artwork plays with the viewers’ senses and perceptions, asking us to reimagine and reconsider our everyday surroundings. The line between real and illusory is often blurred in his work, highlighting how subjective preconceptions and responses mould the material world.
As a member of Therme Art’s Advisory Board, Sæbjörnsson regularly collaborates with Therme Art’s curatorial team on programming and events, including the Wellbeing Culture Forum. Here he has contextualised select webinars through sketches and visualisations. Having practiced in Berlin for over 20 years, Sæbjörnsson brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into Berlin’s cultural scene and institutions, of which Therme Art has an ongoing commitment to support.
Sæbjörnsson is known for his mercurial and often absurd artworks which have included enlivening everyday cleaning supplies with light projections and making videos of talking rocks. Dada, animism, and absurdist cabaret remain key themes in his work.
Since graduating in 1997 from the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, he has been working with computer imagery, virtual reality, the internet and its relation to the “off keyboard” or “normal” world. Sæbjörnsson’s recent events and exhibitions have taken place in Hamburger Bahnhof, PS1 Moma, Amos Rex Museum, Frankfurter Kunstverein, The Watermill Center New York and the Reykjavik Art Museum. In 2017 Sæbjörnsson represented Iceland at the 57th Biennale Arte in Venice.
