Films
Lights, Piano, Action
Oddur Roth & Davíð Þór Jónsson stage a site-specific performance inside the Braemar Kirk in honor of Björn Roth
Ursula presents a new short film documenting a site-specific performance by Oddur Roth and Davíð Þór Jónsson, recorded at the The Fife Arms during the second Ursula Weekender in Braemar, Scotland in April 2026.
Held in the village’s Victorian parish church, the performance combined experimental sound, movement and visual art in honor of Oddur’s father, Björn Roth (1961–2026). The work brought together Roth’s interdisciplinary artistic practice with Jónsson’s improvisational approach to music and composition, unfolding in dialogue with the church’s architecture and acoustics.
The performance also reflected the wider artistic legacy of the Roth family, whose practice across generations has moved fluidly between visual art, music, publishing, installation and communal forms of artmaking. Roth and Jónsson have previously collaborated on projects connected to the Roth family’s experimental and improvisational performance tradition, and the Braemar work continued that exchange through live action, painted interventions and the physical transformation of the piano itself.
The performance was presented as part of Ursula's Weekender, a multi-day gathering in Braemar that brings together artists, writers, poets and cultural voices.
Photos: James D. Kelly
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Davíð Þór Jónsson is an Icelandic pianist, composer and improviser whose work spans contemporary composition, experimental music and interdisciplinary performance. Active across Iceland’s cultural scene, he frequently collaborates with visual artists and performers, creating site-responsive works that engage sound, architecture and improvisation in equal measure.
Oddur Roth is an Icelandic artist whose practice engages installation, construction and collaborative forms of artmaking. Early in his career, he collaborated with his father, Björn Roth, on exhibitions and projects around the legacy of his grandfather Dieter Roth, including a 2014 residency at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, where the two developed the original bar that became an integral part of Roth Bar & Grill, the gallery’s on-site restaurant. In 2024, he returned to Somerset for a residency centered on a new Roth Bar installation, reimagining the space as a site-specific artwork and fully functioning bar. He also runs his own construction company and, since Björn Roth’s passing, represents the Dieter Roth Estate alongside his uncle Karl Roth and brother Einar Roth.