For The
End — Venezia, Kjartansson transformed Iceland's
pavilion into an artist's painting studio and had fellow Icelandic
performance artist Páll Haukur Björnsson act as his life model for the entire six months
of the exhibition.
Visitors to the 2009 Venice Biennale may recall Kjartansson as hirsute, hard - drinking painter hard at work in the Icelandic
pavilion, slugging beers and painting portraits
of a Speedo - clad model for a piece he titled The
End (Venice), a joyfully irreverent take on the typically serious genre
of performance.