Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson (1984) was born in Reykjavík, Iceland and is now based in Berlin, Germany. He is a performer, object maker, painter, and a storyteller. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam and obtained his master degree in fine art at the Sandberg instituut Amsterdam in 2012.
Styrmir’s art comes together in stories which epitomise his creations. The stories develop from one thing to another; a drawing on paper can evolve into music or a sculpture which then becomes the start of a performance. The viewer gets a glimpse of a magical world in which anything can happen. The artist claims he prefers not to know where his creation may lead him. He maintains his creation in a flow, free of rationalism, exploring new boundaries of the mind. Styrmir has a love for the absurd, by which is meant less an obsessive passion for the ridiculous, nonsensical or the odd, than a tender and caring attitude: he takes care of the absurd, he helps it to develop, he gives it a place alongside everything else where it can be your most disturbing neighbor and your best friend.
Styrmir has exhibited and performed internationally, in festivals, museums and project spaces. In 2017, he started What Am I Doing With My Life?, which has been performed widely around Europe, including at Ujazdowski Castle Warsaw, CAC Vilnius and at the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Styrmir was a year-long artist-in-residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien between 2020-21.
Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson (f. 1984) er sögumaður, dansari, söngvari og myndskreytari. Hann hrífst af hinu fjarstæðukennda, en með því er frekar átt við milda og kærleiksríka afstöðu en þráhyggju fyrir hinu fáránlega. Hann ber umhyggju fyrir hinu fjarstæðukennda. Hann aðstoðar það við að þróast. Hann gefur því pláss meðfram öllu öðru, þar sem það getur tekið form hins óþolandi nágranna eða þíns besta vinar. Styrmir býr í Varsjá.