Sequences Slows Down: The Real-Time Art Festival Invites You To Pause

Sequences Art Festival, the biennial festival celebrating its 12th edition this year, is a self-described “real-time festival.” Originally, this designated the festival’s focus on art that developed in real-time within the festival, or simply time-centric art. For the past several iterations, though, this term has grown more expansive and fluid.

This year, selected curator Daría Sól Andrews presents this iteration’s guiding theme: “Pása,” or “Pause.” “There has been a tradition of thinking about real-time, in any way that the curator or group of curators sees fit,” Daría Sól explains. “That’s kind of where [Pause] started, thinking about real-time and what my approach to it could be. And that’s where I started thinking about time, and slowness, and slowing down. That felt quite relevant to our current state of the world.”

She pauses (no reference intended), then adds, “It’s not, in any way, a new idea. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not any less urgent or important.”

Photo by Art Bicnick

Daría Sól’s interpretations of slowness range. She’s curated a festival including art practices that take significant time to actualise, such as the Lagos Studio Archives, which resurrect footage of life in Lagos, Nigeria, from the 1970s to the 2000s; other works have naturally weathered over the course of time, such as group exhibition Sediment and Signal at the Nordic House; then there are performances and events that intentionally take time to unfold, asking for patience from viewers. Different interpretations of time and slowness also take form in the festival’s three main exhibitions: Experiential Time, Natural Time, and Political Time.

This year’s festival sprawls across seven locations and more than 40 artists, both Iceland-based and international. “It is important that this is an Icelandic art festival, highlighting Icelandic visual art,” Daría Sól emphasises, then adds, “but it’s always more interesting if it’s in conversation with international voices.”

Taking one’s time

One international voice joining Sequences this year is Sheida Soleimani, an Iranian-American artist and bird-rehabilitator. The artist exhibited in Iceland a few years ago, as a part of Bryndis Björnsdottir’s research exhibition IMMUNE. In IMMUNE, Sheida “looked closely at the cod fishing industry, its role in global trade, and its environmental toll on the island.” She explains, “These overlapping systems of extraction and exchange became a lens through which I thought about Iceland in a way not shrouded by typical ecotourist viewpoints.”

Now, with this perspective, Sheida returns to Iceland for Sequences. She will take part in Aftertime, an exhibition at the Living Art Museum (Nýlistasafnið). Her work is multimedia, and is informed by her work as an activist and her mother’s experience as a political prisoner in Iran during the 1979 revolution. Sheida’s work fits into the exhibition’s exploration of the lived experience of time through the lens of politics.

Another event is Hugo Llanes and Catherine Rivadeneyra Bello’s performance and group dining event. The two are Iceland-based Mexican artists; Catherine is a Michelin-restaurant-trained chef, and Hugo is a celebrated multimedia artist. They will offer a meal and performance, intertwining ingredients and practices from both Mexico and Iceland. Alongside them, ceramicist Viktor Breki, designer Laufey Soffía, costumer and upcycler Eva Ísleifs, poet Mildred Rivadeneyra, and boleros vinyl DJ Carlos Mex all contribute to their event.

“Slow art and slow food interconnect here, inviting a reconnection with rhythm, ritual, and presence,” Catherine tells me.

A core element, and namesake of the performance, is Masa, a corn dough traditional to Mexico. “Masa is corn dough, an element that mutates in different ways depending on who prepares it and how it is being cooked, but also it has changed over time, and it changes form depending on geographic location,” explains Hugo. “So, why not create our mutations and changes? That’s why I see this performance dinner as a mutation of Icelandic and Mexican elements,” he concludes.

Slowing down

The theme of “Pause” resonates deeply with Hugo and Catherine. “I tend to ask myself, ‘What do we do when we eat?’ It seems that during the act of eating, we are rarely fully present,” says Hugo. “Masa itself requires time, care, and patience,” adds Catherine. “From the nixtamalisation process to the shaping of tortillas, working with corn is an ancestral practice of slowing down and honouring each step.”

She continues, “In my own journey, leaving the Michelin world was about learning to pause; to step away from constant speed and pressure, and instead cultivate meaningful, nourishing experiences that bring me a sense of peace.”

Similar to Catherine, Daría Sól also has personal resonance with the theme of “Pause.” “When I was thinking about the exhibition concept, my relationship to time was so different. I was pregnant, and then I had a small baby. How you experience time shifted so much for me, thinking about what’s important, what you give your time to. Time is a privilege. And I was really forced to slow down and pause, realise how important it is to just take a moment. I think that was also where this idea originated. Just from a personal need.”

“We need to adapt all the time,” says Hugo. “But there are situations which can make us slow down and or anchor back from acceleration to be able to see the beauty.” Sequences intends to be one of those situations where we might slow down to see the beauty.

Sequences XII runs from October 10 to 20. All exhibitions are free, but specific events require tickets. All information can be found at sequences.is