Ari Alexander Ergis Magnússon was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, to an Icelandic father who was a playwright, film and theatre director and a Siberian-Yakutian mother who is an actress and visual artist.
His mother graduated from the acting school GITIS in Moscow, while his father graduated from the legendary film school VGIK where his parents first met. They moved to Reykjavik, Iceland from Moscow in 1966 after his father lost faith in the utopian dream of the USSR.
Magnússon lived in Aarhus, Denmark from 1979 to 1983, before moving to Paris in 1989. He studied at the Sorbonne University from 1989 to 1990 and later earned a BFA in fine arts from Parsons Paris School of Art and Design from 1991 to 1996.
Since then, he has exhibited his paintings, installations, and video work in galleries in Iceland, Denmark, France, England, USA, China, Argentina, Russia, and Siberia.
Magnusson has received several awards and was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize in 2005 for his music documentary Screaming Masterpiece, led by Björk and Sigur Rós.
He premiered his first narrative feature film MIHKEL at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival in South-Korea and the Warsaw International Film Festival in Poland. The film was released in cinemas in Estonia and Iceland the same year.
It's a dramatic film based on a real-life tragedy that took place in Iceland in 2004, involving two childhood friends from Estonia. The film was produced by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Evil Doghouse, Amrion Production, and Truenorth, with full production support from KMÍ the Icelandic film Centre and development support from the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
Ergis Film Production, owned by Ari Magnusson, was established in 2002. The company's focus has been on documentaries, mostly on artists, and has been involved with major working artists such as Björk, Erró, Sigur Rós, Gudbergur Bergsson, Thor Vilhjálmsson, Ólafur Elíasson, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Alain Robbe Grillet, David Lynch, Kristján Gudmundsson, Matthew Barney, and Yoko Ono.
Magnusson has worked closely with a team of experienced professionals, including producer and film director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Los Angeles-based film producer Sigurjón Sighvatsson, writer Jón Proppé, and co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London, Hans Ulrich Obrist.
