Artists, who perhaps through their seismographic capability of perceiving can read and understand the signs of time more clearly and more consciously than most of us, have always taken up the cause of peace and freedom. They have supported Amnesty International, stood up for the maintenance of human rights through visual means, and demanded the preservation of human dignity with regard to the victims of violence and destruction. One could mention, for example, the worldwide project Artists against Torture as well as innumerable efforts on the part of individual artists. Fears of destruction are the central focus here, especially the threat posed to man by mankind itself.

An exhibition of the sort held by Rúrí in Reykjavík presents and documents the extent to which the rejection of other cultures, religions and ideologies can lead to alienation and hate, resulting in injury and destruction, the annihilation of what is foreign and unknown. The artist attempts, with her own visual means, to give expression to her horror and shock, while at the same time drawing the observer into a dialogue with what is happening in the world. It is a highly impressive presentation, which addresses numerous components of perception, touching a number of sensual levels at the same time and thus creating a much more lasting effect than perhaps the daily news report could ever accomplish.

Almost half a century ago, on December 10th, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly. Since then we have not had another world war but it nevertheless seems that at the end of this century, which also marks the end of the millennium, a fin de siècle mood pervades. In this final decade of the century innumerable new religious or ideologically motivated conflicts have arisen, which have jettisoned the cause of human rights in favor of amassing political power. They include the Gulf War at the beginning of the decade, as well as the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which are at the center of this exhibition.

THE EXHIBITION PROJECT

The 500 m2 of exhibition space are divided up into four or five areas. From the main entranceway the visitor enters the first area of the exhibition. Here the opposite wall catches the eye first. On a specially made steel table an index-card system has been placed, which will comprise 100 file boxes and a total of about 100,000 index cards. The index cards are arranged by province and region. They are numbered and each of them represents one victim of war, for example, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The person's name, sex, date of birth, type of torture, nationality, etc. and any further information available is written on the card.

The information is as a rule incomplete. There are also cards representing persons for which no detailed information could be obtained, but were on the basis of statistical criteria included as item numbers in the total collection of data. To the right of the index-card system there is a wall with maps showing the region and data and text which refer directly to the individual index cards.

On the opposite wall there are a number of large rectangular metal plates, like tablets, upon which various texts have been silk-screen printed. There is, for instance, a list of the names of the nations which are members of the United Nations, followed by a list of armed conflicts during the past decade and number of fatalities, and other references from humanitarian conventions.

From this area we come to the second part of the exhibition, the entrance of which is concealed. As a result the area is not visible from outside. We have to enter in order to be able to see the video presentation there. Three video films are shown in parallel on three different walls. They show the destruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina, principally ruins. Under the entire scene a soft noise can be heard, which is connected to the scenes in the films and seems to be called forth by them. The film scenes which, like an environment, move about the observer and are audible, place this same observer directly in the events themselves. We can tangibly realize, in the truest sense of the word, what is happening around us. We become a part of the scene. The threat could affect us ourselves. We are able to relate what is going on to ourselves.

The most multivarious and perhaps most highly charged area of the exhibition is entered from the left side of the entrance area. Here there is another table, similar to the table upon which the index-card system has been arranged. On this table there is a row of computers linked to the Internet. A special title home page has been created to help the user find his way through the system. All the data which was contained on the index cards is also stored in the memory system of these computers, which are all linked together, but here the data is more extensive. There is, for example, information on the age of the victims, etc. In addition there are direct links to various home pages, for example, that of the United Nations, Amnesty International On-line, the Washington Post, etc. Not only is the data on the individual index cards presented here in much more extensive detail, there is also photographic material, which documents the various types of violence. There is also a letter from one of the victims.

In addition to this observers have the possibility, with the help of the computers, of acquainting themselves with Rúrí's earlier works, and thus forming a connection between older works and the unified work of art presented here.

A further component of this area is the photographic enlargements of the so-called Diary 1994. This consists of a special collage put together from the daily diary entries and notes of the artist, in combination with actual contemporary articles of that year from the Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið.

The diary jottings of the artist on the right side, which are placed in an actual temporal frame of reference by means of the newspaper article, become the thematic equivalent of a newspaper article in English presented opposite on the left side. There is a double-page spread for each day of the year, now collected in a book of 732 pages, 30 x 22 cm in size, produced in an issue of 100 copies. The book can be paged through at the exhibition while at the same time the individual pages, reproduced in an enlarged format, can be seen on the walls.

Within this larger area a small, cubical space has been constructed with the title Eye to Eye, which is in complete darkness and separated from other sounds of the exhibition. A slide projector shows life-size photos through which we can empirically experience the desperation of a person oppressed by armed force and transfer this to ourselves. A change of photos occurs at lengthy intervals, only interrupted by a small emergency light, which gives the now deserted observer, the visitor to the exhibition, a spark of hope.

The outer walls of the small cubicle show a large, very coarsely printed map of the world, pointing out that throughout the world, at all times, in every spot, people are wounded, neglected and ill-treated.

The last area of the exhibition, which can also be reached by a second entrance, shows photographs, both black-and-white and in colour. Many of them are the works of an Icelandic photographer, who was in Rwanda and Somalia a few years ago, and an Icelandic-Yugoslavian photographer, who was in Yugoslavia when hostilities broke out. Both have contributed their photographic works to the project and this exhibition. The major point, however, is photos which Rúrí herself brought back from her trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgrade and Serbia earlier this year. Each of these photo panels distributed over the various walls of the area consists either of individual, enlarged photos or a combination of one large photo plus several smaller ones, which were taken at the same time, at the same place, on the same theme. At the same time we hear, at changing intervals, the voice of one of the three photographers, expressing his or her feelings, experiences, sensations at the time of photographing. There is no writing or text in this area. In all her actions the artist has placed prime emphasis, in accordance with the materials and the theme of the exhibition project, on using contemporary techniques and materials which are at the same time unpretentious and unromantic - just as the theme itself is unromantic. This is not a question of pointing out the beauties of the world, quite the opposite. The entire environment becomes a documentation, a sign of the time. It consists of standardized office furnishings, computer terminals of the command-central sort, Internet-connections and information-search possibilities; it consists of an archive, film and movement, noise and quiet, contemplation, light and darkness.

The visitor needs time for this exhibition, and he will not be left in peace. The contents are a reflection of what the German artist Günther Uecker was trying to express, when he said, "Art cannot rescue people, but through the means of art a dialogue becomes possible, which can call out for action to preserve people."

THE RELEVANCE OF THE THEME

The theme seen from the framework of Rúrí's own artistic work The theme of destruction is an important component in Rúrí's works, even though many of them appear to be formulated much more abstractly. This is perhaps only a first impression, for upon closer examination it becomes clear that all of Rúrí's very diverse and changeable works are tightly interlocked. She states: "For me, art is philosophy. My works are concerned with the connections between man, the earth, and the universe; between the existence of mankind and the inestimable age of the universe; human perceptions. My works represent only a tiny fragment of the whole. No matter how original we imagine ourselves to be, our works are always based on the same fundamental premises, ... of man and human culture in relation to nature, the earth and the universe. Artists are constantly turning up new facets of the same reality and observing it from new points of view. "(Rúrí 1992)

Especially in more recent years, Rúrí has been dealing extensively with cultural history, from the earliest times to the present. Cultural history is for her Time, and Time is the basic theme of her entire artistic effort. Time means change, motion. Panta Rei, "all is in flux", and is grasped under constant change. As Heraclitus already recognized, being is becoming. Rúrí deals with the ideas, situations, occurrences and other influences which have brought about changes in our culture. She is always attempting to work out what links together human beings, the Earth and the Universe; for what connections there are between human existence and that immeasurable age, the time span of the Universe; between the finite and the infinite and what human perceptions are possible.

She maintains, for example, that quite simple, apparently safe units of value, which are clearly definable and fixed, such as for example the length of a carpenter's yardstick (a metre), can under certain circumstances lead to diverse phenomena and thus to diverse meanings and realizations. Rúrí has thus taken scientifically based units of measure - such as the 100 to 200 cm length of a carpenter's yardstick - as a basis for making the relativity of such definitions visible. We can agree that even a folded-up carpenter's yardstick (of standard size) has a length of 200 cm. (I refer here to Nelson Goodman's "The Invention of Facts"). It thus seems only normal as a result, that a work of two horizontal and 2 vertical yardsticks (of standard size) should be entitled Four Square Metres. A further constructive work of a total of 26 yardsticks (of standard two-metre size) is called Fifty-two Metres, indicating in number and form the weeks of the year, and thus also the cycle of coming and passing away, of beginning and end, to time as infinity.

Rúrí has in this way advanced her own "Theory of Relativity", which she describes as follows: "Everything is relative. The experience and understanding of existence depends upon the place and point of view from which it is observed. As well as when the observing was done, and who the observer was." Rúrí has a quite specific relation to numbers. We could say that numbers observed in isolation have no meaning, except for a symbolic one. Numbers only acquire a reference when they refer to something – in which case they can be interpreted quantitatively, in the sense of a measure or number of something, or qualitatively, in the sense of a hierarchy.

That numbers function as units of measure or number in Rúrí's works is not only apparent in the yardsticks or centimeter rules. Her environments, which again and again deal with the theme of time, are also not least involved with numbers as a quantity of time. Thus in the present installation, PARADISE? - When?, numbers appear as indications of time, measure or number. This is exemplified in the diary entries, dated with the help of numbers. There are also numbers on the index cards, here representing a human individual, who became a victim, his or her suffering and annihilation. In other works by Rúrí numbers also appear in the form of mass relationships, proportions or measures. Finally, the actual occasion of this exhibition was, naturally, prompted by the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Even apart from this, this impressive and expansive work of art must be seen in the context of various groups of earlier works which Rúrí has described with the title Time and Possible Threats. Among the earliest works of this group is an installation done almost 15 years ago, entitled Desolation. Fragments of concrete walls, like the ruins of a dead city, reminiscent and indicative of house and stone walls of a city built primarily of concrete, were erected in a pedestrian area of an actual modern city in Denmark. This environment (created in 1984) was followed in 1986 by the work Time with photos of crumbling or destroyed houses, illuminated on transparent glass plates suspended in the air. This was then followed in 1987 by the work entitled Museum, consisting of 15 coffin-like display cases. In these boxes Rúrí presented her collection of objects created by human hands, sorted and arranged by category and accompanied by a numerical indication of the location of their geographical origin. It is another example of an archival, documentary work, similar to PARADISE? - When? Here numbers and time also play an important role.

However, the most direct forerunner of the planning concept of PARADISE? - When? was the work Innocent? dating from 1993, which presented a slide show of war and battle scenes from art history. Included were works by Rubens, Goya and Manet, for example, Manet's work The Shooting of the Emperor Maximilian.

Rúrí's work in the context of contemporary art and artists It is not only in the history of art of former centuries that we can – as just demonstrated - find examples of artists dealing with the theme of annihilation and destruction. The most prominent examples in this respect must certainly include Christian Boltanski. Viewed from an artistic, or perhaps an art historic perspective he belongs to the category of one "recording the tracks". From very early in his career his works were thematically concentrated on death. While they were at first concentrated on the Jews of the Holocaust, a short time later they expanded to include very varied groups of diverse ages, nationalities and professions, irrespective of the way in which they had met their fates.

One of the best-known examples of his documentary research is a comprehensive work 3000 (dead) Swiss which he placed as black and white photos in a mysteriously dramatic lighting in rusty, used biscuit tins and presented against the wall in an overall environmental art work. Here the reference to reality becomes even more clear to the observer, and Boltanski explains the effect of his installation as follows: "Thus a dead Jew is only a matter of course. Death and the Jews are too well acquainted with one another. Who, on the other hand, could ever imagine that the Swiss are also mortal? The Swiss are so normal. There is really no reason why they especially should have to die. Dead Swiss thus are so much more horrible to us, because they are like us." (Boltanski)

Hanne Darboven and On Kawara have also contributed to "recording the tracks" and documenting contemporary history with their calendar and date works. In the works of both of these artists, however, there is a comparatively abstract presence, which distances them visually from their actual content. In the case of Hanne Darboven the notations on the date fields, the apparently mathematical constructions, the calculations and displacements of time, are thematically scarcely interpretable. On Kawara's newspaper articles and news documented actual relations between picture date and the date on the picture, but should be seen as only one of many potential possibilities.

In their type of systematical archiving of the past Hanne Darboven and Christian Boltanski perhaps resemble Rúrí's work the most. Here the experiences of a single human being, an individual, who nevertheless remains somehow anonymous, are also quantified and made transferable to a specific group of human beings, a part of humanity. The social experiences of many individuals become history, the cultural history of humanity. Changes can be recognized in the course of time. "Time heals all wounds" it is said, and "the dead sleep in peace". Yet our consciousness must be shaken, must keep awake, keep alert for the conditions which lead to destruction.

A unique proximity between Rúrí's work and that of Günther Uecker can be seen in another way. At least since the early 80's Uecker has dealt with the theme The Threat posed to Man by Man. At the center of this engagement is war, the fear of destruction and annihilation and the maintenance of human dignity.

Among significant examples of this are the Cologne project Kölnisch - Klause - Phobien with the slogan "War should never happen". Others include The Gate of a Lost Sorrow (1981), his Letters to Peking (1994) and the painted-over photo series of Cambodia entitled Wind of the Dead Souls for the Children of the Khmer of 1993. The exhibition organized by the German institute for cultural exchange IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) entitled The Flayed Man, which has toured around the world since 1993, testifies to the extent of Günther Uecker's occupation with this theme, and how he has attempted to give visual expression to his shock and horror.

The character of the visual works it produces is far less documentary than Rúrí's works. Nor are they as systematically directed at completeness, i.e. at a complete grasp of the people involved. They are much more dedicated to the overall mood that is to be conveyed. Nevertheless, all of the four artists named can clearly be seen to deal with contemporary events, contemporary history. Each artist, however, formulates this in a different manner.

The contemporary reference It is not only with regard to the contents that we can see similarities here to the work of other contemporary artists, as we have just discussed, but the contemporaneity is also visible in the materials, techniques and forms of presentation. Rúrí attempts to illustrate and make visible the meaning and scope of the theme with the most diverse media, including text, photography, film, Internet, etc. It is striking that her form of "recording the tracks" possesses a considerable measure of neutrality. In other words, she draws back from leaving her own specific signature or artistic stamp on the theme, with a few exceptions. Both of the tables, for example, upon which the computers and the index card system are placed, were created and produced especially for this exhibition. But since tables do not stand at anyone's focal point of interest, or form the actual center of the exhibition - but rather that which is placed upon them - these contributions by the artist retreat into the background. The eye of the observer is released from them to fix upon the central contents.

Certainly, the metal plates in the first entrance area were created by the artist. But here as well the documentary character dominates; the information steps to the foreground, and the plates could just as well be standard information boards. The only indication of Rúrí's artistic presence here is in the photographic enlargements of the collages of newspaper articles from 1994 with her diary entries. The observer is confronted with notes and information in superdimensional format, which are very personal in character, since they reflect the life of the artist with her projects, plans, thoughts, constructions and notes and at the same time give an indication of contemporary events in the world of humans who, from the point of view of the observer, are anonymous, unknown.

In this manner a dialogue is created; the life of the artist is placed into context with world history. Art has always documented history and made it permanent in its works - and such is the case to an exceptional extent in Rúrí's work here.

The photos of the final area, taken by Rúrí herself in Bosnia-Herzegovina, also manage to show her personal view. But since these photos are presented together with the pictorial records of two other photographers, this should also convey a neutral, i.e. a documentary, impression. At the center stands not the artist herself, but world history.

CONTEXTS AND CONTEMPLATIONS

The question then arises how such a purposely conceived work of art should be interpreted, be understood? Rúrí has always emphasized in her comments and notes that her special interest is time, history and the cultural change occurring through the course of time, as well as the ideas, circumstances, events and influences which bring about change in this cultural history.

There might be a hint of a Dantean perspective behind this type of approach - as in The Divine Comedy - first through Hell and Purgatory in order to eventually reach Paradise, suggested in the title PARADISE? - When? of the entire exhibition. Perhaps, however, this type of approach and form of presentation could also be understood as taking a stand, as a protest; to be read as the view of an artist who does not want to exclude herself. A contribution to raising consciousness of the situation, to understanding anything and anyone who is different, to making us aware of the danger which lurks everywhere. An appeal for peace and the maintenance of human rights, for human dignity, for freedom and harmony. Probably we can also make out the thought behind this that it is not always easy or unambiguous to distinguish between what is good or evil, right or wrong, black or white. In certain circumstances or specific ideological frameworks, these values can quickly be displaced. The victim can become the perpetrator.

Religions - throughout the world - are generally messages of peace. They focus on peace; loving our neighbors and wise understanding of others is the center of all their efforts. Nevertheless, if they were not based on political ideologies or national ambitions, many of the greatest wars were conducted in the name of religion. This phenomenon has existed ever since religions have existed. It is enough to recall the Crusades of the Middle Ages. But we still experience this today.

In a world where we can communicate worldwide via the Internet or similar media, there are no longer any obstacles to learning about other people and things foreign to us, other religions and other ethical contexts. In spite of this there are innumerable wars being fought even today in the name of religion, whether in Ireland, in the heart of Europe, on the West Bank, the Persian Gulf, or Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is the focus of this exhibition.

The ideal of peace is proclaimed worldwide by the great majority of people; murder and death are condemned, aggression is punished. As soon as a specific ideology raises its head, however, an ethical, national, religious or any other sort of demarcation of others, of what is foreign - at that time all values are reversed and transformed into their opposites. From the perspective of the aggressor the infidel does not have the same rights as the faithful, does not have the same status.

ART AS A MISSION

(Visual) Art is a form of communication and as such is capable of dialogue in the best sense. The artist is a "seismographic perceiver, the anticipator of human drama" (Uecker). He receives the signs of the times and formulates them in images. Visual perception can be more comprehensive than a verbal description of a situation. Visual art is not doctrinaire, it makes things visible. It points through phenomena at what they conceal from sight.

The ambitions of the artist are not nationally aimed. Contrary to the athlete, for example, the artist seeks to link up with those who are different, as well as with history. This method of approach becomes a mission of peace in the world, for the means of art make possible a worldwide dialogue, heedless of national, religious, ethical and ethnic origins, a mission which aims at higher ideals: values such as freedom, beauty, harmony, peace and the absolute.