Akureyri Art Museum/Listasafnið á Akureyri, Akureyri and LA Museum/ Listasafn Árnesinga, Iceland
The focal point of this exhibition is the various laws and manifestations of pleasure. New works from six artists who approach the concept, each from their own perspective and premises; open up a dialogue on the role of pleasure in a philosophical, artistic, and worldly context. The works display obsessive manifestations of modern consumerism and sex life, the flesh in art, the human body as a symbolic phenomenon and inspiration, or simply the primitive pleasure which often accompanies art creation during the struggle with material and texture, compulsions and fetishes.
Where do the boundaries lie between normal and humane nurturing of pleasures and joys, on the one hand, and submitting to them without restraint, on the other hand? When does anything become a fetish? What is the difference between sensuality and excessiveness, eroticism and pornography, beauty and kitsch, desire and addiction, ambition and greed, lofty goals and nonsense? And who has the power to put forth these definitions?
The catalogue Nautn / Conspiracy of Pleasure was published by the museums. Various programs and talks followed Nautn / Conspiracy of Pleasure; artist’s talks, talks about various aspects of pleasure and conspiracy: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir writer and art historian, Ágústa Ragnarsdóttir visual art teacher, Markús Þór Andrésson author of the text in the exhibition catalogue and head of the Exhibition and Education department at Reykjavík Art Museum, and Salvör Nordal director of the Center for Ethics of the University of Iceland.