Elín Hansdóttir, Long Place 

Elín Hansdóttir’s (b. Reykjavík, Iceland, 1980; lives and works between Reykjavík and Berlin) oeuvre extends from installation and sculpture into photography. The particulars of an exhibition site anchor her creative process and supply her with inspiration, which she translates into site-specific and immersive installations involving acoustic and optical illusions; architectural elements prompt the viewers to explore labyrinthine settings and sharpen their sense of their own physical presence and movement. Hansdóttir’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Reykjavík Art Museum and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. 

The publication looks back on the untitled project, produced for the 2005 Reykjavík Arts Festival in collaboration with Anne Kockelkorn, Darri Lorenzen and the design duo Neulant van Exel. With her team, Hansdóttir built a 500-foot tunnel-like construction inside Edinborg House, an edifice from the 1890s in Ísafjörður. A passageway of disillusionment zigzagging through a completely white interior awash in monochrome lighting guided the visitors in changing directions: to the right, left, right, up, down, left, right, and, finally, back out. This visual and spatial experience was expanded by a sonic pattern that was based on sound-recordings from within the tunnel and emitted via surround sound systems. Sensory deprivation and the disorientation induced by the meandering trajectory made the installation a screen onto which the visitors projected their own thoughts. 

Long Place presents the first comprehensive documentation of the installation. The architectural historian Anne Kockelkorn and the literature scholar and philosopher Björn Quiring wrote essays on Hansdóttir’s sensitive art.  

• Softcover 
• 88 pages 
• Illustrated 
• Language: English and German 
• Published: 2021 
• Publisher: Distanz 
• Size: 18 cm x 22 cm 
• Weight: 284 g