“She creates a circle around her which is her universe, and before each circle closes itself she jumps outside to create a new circle,” Michel Gondry said of the perennially changing musician and visual artist Björk this weekend in the New York Times magazine. “So each album goes into a new direction regardless of the success of the previous one.” Or as she puts it herself, “When people expect something of me it’s the only thing I can’t do.”
So yes, Björk has moved beyond the album format and taken her art to another level. For her latest trick, the visually daring, musically idiosyncratic artist has created "Black Lake," a new sound and video installation commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition Björk, which runs March 8–June 7, 2015. The song "Black Lake" appears on Björk’s new album, Vulnicura, so it only makes sense that the installation is a extension of her music.
Here’s some info from MOMA and a breakdown of what you can see:
On the second floor, in the Marron Atrium, two spaces have been constructed: one is dedicated to a new sound and video installation, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, for “Black Lake,” a song from Björk’s new album Vulnicura (2015); and the second is a cinema room that screens a retrospective in music videos, from Debut (1993) to Biophilia. On the third floor, Songlines presents an interactive, location-based audio experience through Björk’s albums, with a biographical narrative that is both personal and poetic, written by the acclaimed Icelandic writer Sjón, along with many visuals, objects, and costumes, including the robots designed by Chris Cunningham for the “All Is Full of Love” music video, Marjan Pejowski’s Swan Dress (2001), and Iris van Herpen’s Biophilia tour dress (2013), among many others.
Naturally, a trailer for all this visual majesty has been released, and you can watch it below.