From 2003 to 2004, The Icelandic Love Corporation: Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir and Eirún Sigurðardóttir performed Crystal Rain, a performance composed in collaboration with Ragnar Kjartansson. It premiered in Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, for the opening of the exhibition Behind the Eyes, 2003. And then we went on to show it at Nordatlantisk Brygge, Copenhagen, 2003, Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, and finally at Klink& Bank, Reykjavik, 2004.

Solveig Øvstebø, then director of Bergen Kunsthall, invited The Icelandic Love Corporation to make a solo exhibition at the museum. We also invited a few Icelandic artist friends to show work as well: Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Sigurður Guðjónsson and Ragnar Kjartansson. He came for the opening and we decided to make a new performance: Crystal Rain.

We were three champagne drinking nymphs who play with an Ouija Board and summon the ghost of a Knight with an exploded penis (Kjartansson).

Text by Ragnar Kjartansson from a catalogue
accompanying the ILC’s solo exhibition at the Reykjavík Art Museum in 2007: “In Warsaw, in Poland, I whimpered with ketchup and porridge on my penis while three amazing women smashed champagne glasses in front of me. Afterwards we went and ate until we were full, drank, and laughed at the stupidity of the world. These are my memories of the ILC. The winter 2003-2004 was a sort of member of the ILC. They invited me to partake in an exhibition in Bergen in Norway, and there we decided to whip up a little performance. And then, of course, they were exhibiting all over the place, and of the kindness of their hearts, they asked me to join them. Draped in silk they led me butt-naked in a knight’s costume across Europe until I ended up in the arms of a beautiful lady after the last performance in Berlin. The Icelandic Love Corporation. I got to be one of the girls that poetic winter. We went to bed giggling and woke up giggling; we trudged out in the snow and saw men walking in beer-bottle costumes on the cobbled streets.
It was fantastic for me to get to work with them. These three Bacchae of the spirit. They throw themselves into art without thought. Instinct guides them. Warm, happy, and yet broken and bruised. We did not hold boring meetings to discuss the concept. More music, less babble. They have been such an inspiration and influence on me. They came with some post-post modern joy and silliness into an art-world that was full of witty concepts. They have always stood for something that could be called “childlike joy” but I would rather call it human dignity.
It is splendid and beautiful that it has now been 10 years – “We ain’t getting any younger.” But this is just the beginning. Thank God for the ILC ... we love them. Let us pour champagne in the crystal and toast the future!”

In 2004 The Icelandic Love Corporation performed their elements from Crystal Rain in front of photographer Áslaug Snorradottir at Klink&Bank in Reykjavík. The colors are in the images are distorted due to the fact that she used old films, resulting in psychedelic colors, which fits well into the clairvoyant atmosphere of the performance.

Photos from Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, by Simone Gilges.