Ragnar Kjartansson, Margrét H. Blöndal and the artist duo of Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson all took part in this summer's Manifesta 7.

About 5.000 art professionals and journalists came for the opening days of Manifesta 7, the roving European art biennial which this time took place in the Trentino region of Northern Italy. Exhibitions were spread around with the curators – Adam Budak, Anselm Franke and Hila Peleg, joined by the Raqs Media Collective from Delhi, India – setting up exhibitions and events both separately and in collaboration. In Fortezza, they collaborated on an exhibition that featured no visible art, focusing instead on sound pieces, mainly dealing with the history of the place. Other strong shows were set up in the towns Bolzano and Trento but the Icelandic participants were installed in Rovereto, in the southern part of the region.

The exhibition in Rovereto was entitled Principle Hope and curated by Adam Budak. Already a day before the preview opening, Libia and Ólafur's Uterus Flags caused provocation that was mirrored in press articles, but their extensive video exploring the fate of immigrants in the area was also named by many as one of the strongest works of the whole festival (out of a total of more than 180 artists). Ragnar constructed an enclosure outside, adorned with flames, which he calls the Schumann Machine. Inside it, he performed day in and day out, singing Schumann's Dichterliebe to the accompinament of Davíð Þór Jónsson's piano. The effect was both fantastic and disturbing and his performance attracted crowds of visitors. By contrast, Margrét H. Blöndal's installation of sculptures and drawings was quiet and soothing, a very convincing presentation by an accomplished artist.