Genelec partners with Björk for immersive exhibition "Echolalia" at the National Gallery of Iceland

Genelec is proud to announce its partnership with the visionary music icon Björk for her immersive exhibition, “Echolalia”, at the National Gallery of Iceland as part of the 2026 Reykjavík Arts Festival. Running from late May through September 2026, the exhibition focuses on Björk’s multidisciplinary approach to sound, visual art, performance, ecology, ritual, and collaboration.

The project is built around three large-scale installations, inviting visitors on a sensory journey through Björk’s artistic world. Drawing on the works Ancestress, Sorrowful Soil, and the newly introduced Nerve Bloom. Set in a remote valley in Iceland, Ancestress, reflects on the cyclical nature of life through a ritualistic procession of musicians and dancers. Sorrowful Soil is a nine-part choral work – a requiem in which canon-like melodies move between three groups of singers in a polychoral arrangement. At the opening of the Echolalia exhibition, Björk also unveiled Nerve Bloom, offering audiences a first glimpse of a new track from her forthcoming album.

Rather than taking the form of a traditional retrospective, this exhibition reimagines the format as an immersive environment where sound, space, and emotion become central to the audience's experience. Thirty speakers each transmit a single voice from the Hamrahlíð choir, conducted by Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir. Here, sound plays a central role in shaping the atmosphere and emotional connection of the exhibition. The multichannel audio system has been carefully designed to support Björk’s artistic vision, allowing visitors to experience the work as the artist intended.

Reflecting on her long-standing relationship with Genelec and the role of sound within Echolalia, Björk commented:

“I have used Genelec for over 20 years...they put cream on everything."

Björk continues, “The exhibition has a speaker installation; we re-recorded each singer separately for ‘Sorrowful Soil’". Grammy nominated recording engineer and musical director for Echolalia, Bergur Þórisson shared:

“We went into creating this exhibition with a sound-first mindset. We wanted it to sound incredible.... we have worked with Genelec speakers for a long time. We know they deliver the sound that we like and the sound that we want.”

Genelec has long supported the development of spatial audio in art and cultural spaces, engineering loudspeaker systems that support immersive installation environments. This collaboration reflects Genelec’s ongoing interest in supporting creative work where sound, space, and artistic expression come together in meaningful ways. The thirty speakers across the three installations consist of Genelec’s SAM series 8341, 8351 and 8361 monitors accompanied with 7370 and 7380 SAM studio subwoofers and Smart IP 4430 technologies, ensuring flexible and accurate sound reproduction across the different spatial environments. As a travelling exhibition, the installation will also be supported by Genelec loudspeaker systems across all locations, ensuring a consistent listening environment wherever it is presented.

The exhibition is presented alongside “Metamorphlings”, an exhibition by James Merry, Björk’s long-time collaborator, in Gallery 4 at the National Gallery of Iceland.