It is a gang of the friends who have inspired him in his works. Beginning in April, they left behind their regular lives and joined Kjartansson on a Fitzcarraldo-like journey. They became "The Palace of the Summerland" by building it, acting it, and living it. Kjartansson's father, the theater director Kjartan Ragnarsson, was there to help direct the scenes, so there was even father-son tension. By visiting TBA21–Augarten at different times, the public experienced diverse situations: the team caught in the middle of a rehearsal; Kjartansson with his father introducing the timing of a certain scene; musicians rehearsing a score composed by Kjartan Sveinsson, the composer and former member of Sigur Rós; the production of sets, costumes, and props: literally the entire production process in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. “"It will be a factory where we are building, acting, and filming an impossibly big story on beauty. The drama is on- site. We are making an epic on a softporn budget, surrounded by the audience. It is a hopeless task. A true disaster,"” said Kjartansson. From April 3 to April 27 (Wednesday to Sunday during opening hours and Saturdays until midnight), the musicians, actors, artistic directors, costume designers, camera operators, and technical crew lived and performed continuously in the Augarten exhibition space, transforming it into an active studio, an art factory, and a set for a film and theatrical adaptation of the epic novel. The venue served as the setting for a durational performance and work-in- progress in which the situation, process, and drama of each ephemeral moment are even more important than a final outcome. The public was invited to pay a visit and enter the situation, momentarily immersing itself in the scene and atmosphere and experiencing the adaptation and production of a tale of beauty and artistic integrity that has molded generations of Icelandic artists, including Kjartansson himself. Visitors were encouraged to spend time with the performance, to return and to maintain an engagement with the monthlong action. Following this four-week performance, the film/theater sets will become part of a large-scale environmental installation was on view at TBA21–Augarten between April 30 to June 8. Laxness's magnificently humanistic novel is, according to Kjartansson, the blueprint of Iceland's artistic DNA and was frequently invoked by his father throughout his upbringing as one would cite “religious scriptures.”