I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here: Björk is basically synonymous with Icelandic pop culture (despite the respectable popularity of Sigur Rós), and it’s hard to imagine any factor other than time changing that notion. Sadly, I have yet to meet the acquaintance of anyone actually Icelandic, but once I do, I know that any resulting conversation will be extraneous to an inevitable question on my part: “So, do you know Bjork?” I’ll let out with an internal sigh of relief, as the blood in my veins resumes its normal flow. After all, it’s not a totally unreasonable question, given Iceland’s concentrated population and relative lack of geographical size.
A review of her CV need not be given, mostly because it’s Björk and you should be exquisitely familiar by now, but also because that job’s just been nabbed by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). From March 7 through June 7 of next year, they’ll be hosting a complete retrospective, chronicling Björk’s 20+ year career through “sound, film visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance.” The exhibition will follow a narrative, co-written by Björk herself and Icelandic writer Sjón Sigurdsson, that’s both biographical and “imaginatively fictitious” — because “run-of-the-mill” just isn’t in the vocabulary of this accomplished bubble gum machine.
A newly-commissioned music and film installation from director Andrew Thomas Huang and 3D design company Autodesk will close out the retrospective in truly “whooaaaaa” fashion. Maybe we’ll get a visual whiff of her less-popular songs, but until that time, check out the music video below, which Huang directed:
• Björk: http://bjork.com
• MoMA: http://www.moma.org
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