Art
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Reykjavík International Film Festival Preview
Dimitri Eipides, programmer for the Toronto and Montreal Film Festivals as well as the Thessaloniki Festival in Greece, was brought on board to supervise the film selection in 2005, and has worked with the festival since. This year’s festival selection features nearly…
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Five Classic Books About Moving to the North Atlantic
You know the story already: a comfortably off writer buys an old farmhouse in France or Italy, drags their sceptical spouse along, meets the eccentric neighbours, learns to cook with the local herbs, and writes a best-selling book about their new life.…
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The Saga Museum
In the Saga Museum in Perlan it all starts at the very basic beginning; it begins with the land, with lava and with rocks. With a very fancy mp3 player and headphones in my ears, I am being prepared for a thirty-minute…
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Spreading the Love
The Icelandic Love Corporation is celebrating its 11-year anniversary with an extensive retrospective inside the Reykjavík Art Museum on Tryggvagata. ILC’s three members, Jóní Jónsdóttir, Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir and Eyrún Sigurðardóttir, have invaded the museum and used every bit of space to display…
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Locating Iceland
Photographer Spessi (Sigurþór Hallbjörnsson) is a graduate of the Akademie Voor Beeldende Kunst, in Holland. Spessi’s photography has always focused on capturing the extraordinary of the ordinary and the beauty contained in deconstructing the simplicity of everyday occurrences. His book Bensín (Gasoline)…
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Icelandic Art
For centuries, Icelanders were certainly not the culturally refined and creative lot they pride themselves on being today. This is evident from the history (and the collection) of The National Gallery of Iceland. This national museum was established in 1884, by Björn…
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Reykjavík Culture Night
Approximately 100 thousand people flocked downtown to partake in the annual celebration, Reykjavík Culture Night, on August 18 this year. Culture Night is the day when street performers, artists, musicians, dancers and actors almost outnumber the 101 population and suburban residents drive…
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Special Souvenirs
I have always maintained that being a black sheep is not at all as unbearable as people claim. It even appears to be coming into fashion these days, you know, this sense of being special and unlike others… I wouldn’t envy salespeople…
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Icelandic Art in Iran
Last June, a group of 16 artists from nine different nationalities flew to the Iranian capital Teheran to work on an extensive art project in the city. Working with the concept ‘I’m longing for and I don’t know what,’ the participating artists,…
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National Museum of Iceland
Established in 1863, the National Museum ofIceland has been located in a spacious buildingon Suðurgata since the 1950s. The museum’scollection counts more than two million photographsand 60 thousand objects from differentperiods of Icelandic history, used to documentthe development through the centuries andpreserve…
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It’s a Lonely Old Town
So, you’re wandering around bustling downtown Reykjavík, dodging prams, nibbling harðfiskur, running into everyone you know and enjoying the vibrant street culture on a typically sunny Icelandic summer’s day… Hang on, a couple of things wrong with that sentence. Firstly, this summer…
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The Return of the Divine Mary
Part romance, part thriller, part theological speculation, The Return of the Divine Mary is a wonderfully eccentric, enchanting read. Traces of William Blake mingle with undertones of Bulgakov, Eco and Kafka to create a fast-paced, unpredictable drama constructed on an intriguing premise:…
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The Ghost Centre
“Seals are crazy about pregnant women,” the deep, solemn, man’s voice on the CD player whispers in my ear. I am nearing the end of the Ghost Centre tour in Stokkseyri, staring at a stuffed seal in a dark room. My audio…
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Seabear: A Fully-fledged Team
The lo-fi country pop group Seabear will be among the many acts performing at the annual Innipúkinn music festival, taking place in Reykjavík on August 4 and 5. The band released its first LP, The Ghost that Carried Us Away, earlier this…
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Gallery Crush
At various Icelandic art schools, designer/fashionista Óli has a reputation. Having focused his art in the direction of the greater community, he has worked in various underground art/video collectives, been an integral member in the formation of independent galleries, and has many…
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Toys for Tourists
Choosing that perfect souvenir to send home can be difficult when stores sell pretty much the same the world ‘round. You’ve probably often wondered how designers can be so unimaginative. One place that stands out from the rest is the store inside…
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Not the Same Old Jens
The soft-spoken musings of Swedish Jens Lekman are carving him a spot in music history as one of Europe’s best-loved troubadours. Bashful, sweet, and disarmingly earnest, Lekman sings about life and love in their purest forms. Grapevine caught up with 26-year-old Jens…
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Rafskinna
Rafskinna, Iceland’s first magazine in DVD format, is a beautifully packaged, attractive collectible. Beyond the 2½ hours of (mostly unseen) footage and16-page printed octavo, it boasts such treasures as a poster, a matchbook, a fly lure and a 1 ISK coin. It’s…
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The Maritime Museum
Located only metres from the old harbour, the Reykjavík Maritime Museum might seem uninteresting on the outside. On the inside, however, an impressive collection of unique fishery related showpieces will grab all your attention and damn-near refuse to let go. The building,…
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Bringing Art to the Public
‘Miðbaugur og Kringla: Leisure, Administration and Control’ is the name of a collaborative exhibition of 11 visual artists that will open in various spaces in Reykjavík on July 21. The participating group, which consists of artists from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway,…
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Outside and Off the Grid
“In the incessant, obtrusive drone of our technological age, we sometimes begin to yearn for whatever is original, simple, and sincere in existence – for anything that is genuine.” So begins the introduction to Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson´s book “Naive and Fantastic Art in…
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Icelandic Folk Legends
If the recent reprinting of Alda Sigmunsdóttir’s Icelandic Folk Legends is anything to go by, Jarvis Cocker has started something. Much like the Pulp frontman’s recordings of Icelandic stories on his ‘Jarvspace’ page last year, this short collection of folk tales is…
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
What were your intentions when you were starting out? Unnsteinn: First it was to win the Samfés (the national youth club organisation of Iceland) singing competition. Þórður: Yeah we started with that. We didn’t make it to anything in the competition but…