Björk’s new exhibition, which merges ritual, ecology, and Icelandic mythology, opens on May 30, 2026, at the National Gallery of Iceland as part of the opening of the Reykjavik Arts Festival. Running until September 20, the exhibition offers audiences an expansive experience of the artist’s multilayered audiovisual universe built upon the relationship between voice, body, and nature.
Iceland’s pop icon, composer, producer, and pioneer of combining performing arts with technology in innovative ways, Björk is preparing to meet audiences with an impressive exhibition that brings together three large-scale multimedia works at the National Gallery of Iceland for the 2026 Reykjavik Arts Festival. For over fifty years, Björk has carved out a vast creative realm spanning pop music, performance art, film, fashion, and digital technologies. Her works, which carry sensory, emotional, and intellectual layers simultaneously, have made her one of the most distinctive figures in contemporary art.
The exhibition title, Echolalia, references a term describing speech repetition in child language development. However, Björk interprets the concept as a far deeper creative resonance that brings together layers of memory, cultural transmission, and the ritual power of voice. The exhibition is presented alongside the first museum retrospective of James Merry, the designer behind the masks Björk has used for many years. Together, the two exhibitions transform four different spaces within the National Gallery of Iceland into a unified immersive experience.
The Worlds of Echolalia and Metamorphlings
Echolalia opens with an installation from Björk’s forthcoming album. This work introduces the themes of transformation and collective creation that have become central to the artist’s recent practice. The second and third galleries are dedicated to two powerful works that emerged alongside Björk’s 2022 album Fossora.
Ancestress takes the form of a lament focused on the cyclical nature of life. Filmed in an Icelandic valley surrounded by clouds, the work stages a ritual procession of musicians and dancers dressed in red-toned costumes. Featuring Björk and her son Sindri Eldon, the procession advances into the depths of the valley accompanied by the sound of a gong, visually enacting the passage between life and death through bodily movement. The masks and ritual objects used in the piece were designed by James Merry, Björk’s longtime collaborator.
Sorrowful Soil is a multilayered choral composition dedicated to Björk’s mother, environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who passed away in 2018. The oval video, floating above the lava flows of the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano, distributes each voice of the Hamrahlíð choir individually through thirty separate speakers placed throughout the gallery. As visitors move through the space, they experience a fluid sensory transition between individual and collective human experience.
Presented simultaneously with Björk’s exhibition, James Merry’s first retrospective, Metamorphlings, also welcomes visitors. Centering on the mask, Merry merges traditional craftsmanship with an avant-garde aesthetic developed over more than a decade. Alongside masks designed for Björk, the exhibition also features works created for figures such as Tilda Swinton and Iris van Herpen. Merry interprets the mask as an instrument of transformation and a threshold that reveals the fluidity of identity.
Björk and James Merry’s exhibitions will open to the public on May 30, 2026, at the National Gallery of Iceland for the launch of the Reykjavik Arts Festival. Running until September 20, they offer an in-depth encounter with the creative worlds of both artists.
