Words by

Gabríel Benjamin

@gabrielandmore

The wind is blowing, the rain is drizzling, and the weekend is full of promising events, so it’s business as usual in Reykjavík. Whether you feel like seeing the high arts, trying out Scottish food or rocking out, this is a good weekend to do so.
Friday
Víkingur Ólafsson plays Brahms with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Named “Iceland’s rising star of a pianist” by the London Times and “born to play the piano” by the New York Sun, Víkingur Ólafsson performs Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Also on the evening’s programme are George Enescu’s vivacious and dancing Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 and Franz Schubert’s Symphony no. 6.
– Harpa at 19:30, admission from 2,300 ISK
Scottish Festival Week at KEX
The Scottish Festival Week includes haggis, whisky, a bagpiper and both Iceland’s Snorri Helgason and Scotland’s Sacred Paws. The Grapevine’s whisky department heartily recommends trying the blended Monkey Shoulder whisky, for it’s a real treat without a sting to it. The other two free whiskies on offer aren’t bad either.
– Kex Hostel, Jan 24 & 25 from 18:00, free admission, 2,000 ISK for haggis
Kira Kira
After five years of exile on foreign soil, Kira Kira, aka Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, has just returned home to Iceland. She mixes electronic music with live instruments, including brass, contrabass, home-made percussions and analogue synthesizers. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years and don’t know what the Icelandic music scene looks like, then this is a gig that will educate you.
– Mengi at 21:00, admission 2,000 ISK but BYOB
Morgan Kane / Saktmóðigur / Jan Mayen
For rockers, and those attracted to rockers, this is the place to be tonight. The four-year-old band Morgan Kane is joined by twenty-three-year-old Saktmóðigur and almost-ten-year-old Jan Mayen. Expect lots of energy and perhaps, if you are very lucky, a mosh pit.
– Bar 11 at 22:00, free admission
Saturday
Katrín Sigurðardóttir – Foundation
Katrín Sigurðardóttir represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 2013 with her work, ‘Foundation.’ ‘Foundation’ is conceived as a trilogy of installations. In the first, at the Palazzo Zenobio’s Lavanderia in Venice, the work intersected with the walls of an ancient laundry. In Reykjavík, the work is located at the Museum’s Harbour House, an old warehouse in downtown Reykjavík. Lastly in New York, it will occupy the vast gallery of SculptureCenter, which in earlier times was a trolley repair facility. With its historical reference, ‘Foundation’ draws attention to the inherent history of its host buildings, and at each exhibition venue the pre-existing walls continue to shape the work, draw a new pattern.
– Hafnarhús (Reykjavík Art Museum), Jan 25 to April 13, admission 1,300 ISK
Ledfoot
Ledfoot (aka Tim Scott McConnell) (aka Master of Gothic Blues) (aka that cool guy with all those tattoos and the 12 string guitar) will rock all through the night. Making his breakthrough into the global music scene with The Havalinas, Ledfoot has since been all over the news for writing “High Hopes,” on Bruce Springstein’s new album of the same name.
– Bar 11 at 22:00, free admission
Bryndís Hrönn Ragnarsdóttir – Psychotronics
Bryndís’s new exhibit ‘Psychotronics’ is the Living Art Museum’s first show of the new year. The exhibition displays Bryndís’s continued process and style where she dwells on the border of the substantial world and the impenetrable, the imaginary and the emotional. The title of the work refers to a term used in the ‘70s and ‘80s to describe a particular branch of parapsychology which proposes that there is a an energy or force that emanates from living organisms and affects matter, and was later used more generally to define unexplainable influences on feeling and experience.
– Living Art Museum, Jan 25 – Mar 09, free admission
From A Different Angle
‘From a Different Angle’ presents photographs from 34 women, from 1872 to 2013. The exhibition is the fruit of two years of research by photographer Katrín Elvarsdóttir, who selected the photographs for the exhibition on aesthetic principles. The exhibit showcases the photographers’ personal vision and creativity, while also illustrating their hard work and interest in their craft.
– Reykjavík Museum of Photography and National Museum of Iceland, Jan 25 to May 11, free admission, but 1,500 ISK cover fee at the National Museum
Sunday
Unrealities Dance Performance
This dance performance is based on research on our perception of reality and the limits of imagination, and it asks how we can differentiate between the believable and the unbelievable. The play is performed and written by Urður Hákonardóttir, Valgerður Rúnarsdóttir and Þyri Huld Árnadóttir, and in it the audiences’ senses are taken on a journey unlike any other.
– The National Theatre of Iceland, Jan 25 & 26 at 20:00, admission 2,500 ISK
Young Voices – Aðalsteinn Már Ólafsson
Young Voices is a weekly event featuring aspiring young singers and giving them a chance to shine. This week the baritone Aðalsteinn Már steps into the spotlight and gets a chance to shine.
– Harpa, 16:00, free admission
Black Sunday – Akira
The folk at Black Sunday regularly select their favourite cult classics and present them on the big screen. This week, the 1988 Japanese anime film ‘Akira’ will be projected at Bíó Paradís, a film about a biker gang that get pulled into a secret military project, endangering all of Neo-Tokyo. Dystopian future, protesting mob, rampaging telepathics and slick motorcycle sequences make up this brilliant animated film.
– Bíó Paradís at 20:00, admission 1,400 ISK
Monday Bonus
AdHd
The Icelandic super alternative-jazz group AdHd will finish up their thirteen-part European tour in Iceland at Gamla Bíó. AdHd is celebrated locally and got raving reviews for their latest album. Members include Davíð Þór Jónsson, Ómari Guðjónsson, Óskari Guðjónsson and Magnúsi Trygvason Eliassen.
– Gamla Bíó at 20:30, admission 3,300 ISK
This is only a fragment of the Grapevine’s listings. For the complete schedule, head over to our listings site. If you have events that you want listed, please email them to us at listings@grapevine.is.