Ragnar Kjartansson’s beloved video installation The visitors (2012) returns to SFMOMA, offering audiences another chance to experience this captivating, immersive work. Projected across nine large screens, the hour-long piece envelops viewers in sound and image, creating a sense of presence that is both intimate and expansive.

Set in the historic Rokeby estate in upstate New York, the installation captures Kjartansson and a group of close musician friends as they perform a single melancholic melody in separate rooms throughout the mansion. Each performer is isolated in their own space—bathtub, parlor, hallway—yet their music is woven together, creating a hauntingly beautiful chorus of voices and instruments.

The visitors is as much about the bonds of friendship and shared artistic expression as it is about solitude and reflection. Its return invites viewers to lose themselves once more in its hypnotic rhythm, and to contemplate the emotional and physical landscapes that shape our experiences of art, music, and one another.