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God is Corruption Funny
Brace yourself: the cast of Spaugstofan (the Joke Office) is up there with the Goons, the Monty Python Crew, and the original Saturday Night Live cast. The five-member cast has been putting on a weekly broadcast since 1989. They have taken full…
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Comics: Closer than First-Person
I have always had a weakness for comics. My newest favourites are graphic novels that recite history. Just read three books on this subject. They have a common thread, life during wartime experienced through the eyes of the innocents. The visual of…
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Lights within the Bog of Cats
“Mýrarljós” is loosely based on a play by Euripides called “Medea”; however, you don’t really have to know anything about the original tragedy in order to enjoy “Mýrarljós”. The play deals with the travelling people of Ireland, the Tinkers, who often used…
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A UNIQUE LIFE – A UNIQUE MUSEUM
It was raining heavily and the rain turning into sleet when I arrived at Glúfrasteinn, the home of the late Halldór Laxness and his family, recently turned into a museum. I pushed the doorbell and a got a warm welcome from the…
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Echoes of the PastEchoes of the Future
A woollen raincoat cased in transparent plastic, ice cubes in the shape of Iceland, (Klakinn, as they call it), a sphere of lava as a mobile dwelling for hidden people. Each piece with one foot in heritage, the other gazing bravely towards…
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Voices in the Waterfalls
Rúrí represented Iceland at the 50th Venice Biennale 2003 with the multimedia installation Archive – endangered waters. The work is finally displayed in Reykjavík at the National Gallery of Iceland, and will be until the 13th of March. The work contains 52…
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More Money than You’ll Ever See Again
The reason for the curator being stripped of her powers to open museum doors is not due to a demotion on her part, but rather to the fact that inside are considerable valuables. The valuables are neither portraits of halfsmiling Italian chicks,…
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His dad’s pigs
“Influences” is the name of his new show at the Reykjavík Art Museum. In his list of influences on his homepage, he mentions his childhood in Black County, the Cold War, Expressionism, Surrealism, the paintings of Casper David Friedrich, the books of…
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Will the real MARLENE DIETRICH please stand up?
Dancer/choreographer/director/singer and general creative lady Erna Ómarsdóttir of Íslenski Dansflokkurinn has never been afraid to take on something new. Together with the equally multi-faceted Slovenian Emil Hrvatin, who amongst other things is head of the production and publishing company Maska, and edits…
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MICHAELANGELO, RODIN AND EINAR JÓNSSON
For me, there were two master sculptors – Michaelangelo and Rodin – who moved me to speechlessness. Now, through that fence, I was meeting someone who ranked with them – indeed, my list now had to read Michelangelo, whoever this was in…
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A beginner´s guide to Estonian culture
DARKNESS IN TALLINN by Ilkka Jarvi-Laturi “What do we do now that we’re free?” ”I don’t know, go to work as always.” The scene shows two working men discussing the benefits of freedom in the first film made in Estonia after independence.…
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On graphic design and Iceland
The first floor of the exhibition “Graphic design In Iceland,” currently in Hafnarhúsið, is mostly dedicated to the early days of the craft, about a century ago, when the typography pioneers in the country designed all sort of packaging, posters and labels…
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The Love Corporation
Just as one begins to think that this is the ultimate male dream, the camera begins to show uncomfortable close-ups of their facial skin. The tension is increased when they start cutting their wings, generously splashing blood on the white outfit. At…
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BRING ON THE ELVES: TAKING ICELAND TO PARIS
Ha? I didn’t even know about the Festival. How come? Rejection and self-doubt ran through my veins. Was I not artist enough? I had to order myself a dwarfsize bottle of Breakfast-Chardonnay to drown the sorrows. I was able to clink my…
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Killing, Shooting, Maiming and Falling in Love. A poetry book, of course.
He had published several different volumes of the stuff and insisted that I should buy at least one of them, much in the same way a mugger insists that you hand over your wallet. In fact this person was the exact opposite…
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POLITICAL DANCING
Screensaver is a highly contemporary work from Israel’s finest choreographer Rami Be’er, the director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Philip Bergmann, from Arnsberg in Germany, is the latest addition to Íslenski dansflokkurinn and one of three foreign lads who have been…
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You Can’t Take it With You
Artist Ragna Róbertsdóttir remains remarkably calm even though this is not just some regular glass. She inspects the damage to the giant, now broken panel. So far, they have installed four panels, but eventually the glass will cover the entire 24 meters…
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YE OLDE ICELAND IS BACK IN ACTION
The photos were courtesy of the magic of the National Museum, who had at one time created a nice visual to accompany the history of the Christmas Lads. This is their forte: bringing ye olde Iceland to you. And so this tradition…
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People At Their Worst
The room is large and the lighting has been dimmed. On each wall there is a rectangular square whereupon two video installations are being shown, side by side, so that at first I think it is one picture. Looking, breathing, thinking, the…
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Your Memories Look Like This
The exhibition is comprised of long prints made of images that seem sewn together. Each print features one subject, but is made of various shots from slightly differing viewpoints. The photographs are both instinctively striking and unsettling because there is no frame…
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NO, NAY, NEVER
The museum itself has primarily been a venue for exhibitions and various creative events, but it is becoming increasingly focused on its position as a setting for both domestic and foreign artists to exchange opinions and ideas. This exhibition covers three cities…
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THIS MAN IS REAL
After gaining such a strong presence in this town it’s impossible not to stop by and see the photographs. Albert, perhaps, draws you in but the photos are not as plentiful as you’d expect with such an extensive advertising campaign. They are,…