Speaking In Tongues: Ásta Fanney’s Glossolalia

Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir explores ultimate freedom in Glossolalia

For the upcoming Dark Music Days (Myrkir Músíkdagar) — a festival platforming contemporary composers — artist Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir will premiere Glossolalia in Harpa’s Eldborg auditorium.

A poet, visual artist, musician, writer and the recently confirmed Icelandic delegate at the 2026 Venice Biennale, Ásta can not, and will not, be labelled. She imagines her role as wearing many hats, all affixed to a rotating set of helicopter blades — whirring so fast they become stroboscopic, melting into one.

Speaking in tongues

The Latin word for the act of speaking in tongues, Glossolalia continues Ásta’s years-long exploration of language as a means of artistic expression. A common theme in her works is the idea of molding art forms into continuous, experiential pieces that play on people’s expectations and ideas about mundanity.

“I’m thinking about this format of communicating something through language,” says Ásta in her hafnar.haus studio, having just recently returned from back-to-back exhibitions in Luxembourg and Taiwan.

“I find it a fascinating phenomenon, how you make yourself legible. Because sometimes, words aren’t the best tool to use when you’re trying to express something,” she says. “I’m examining this margin: where the spectrum is between language and understanding.”

“I enjoy stretching the barriers and going completely out of bounds, or travelling into the piece’s centre and letting it implode.”

Ásta’s fascination with language was also the subject of her Taipei performance piece Phantom Tongue, in which she posited a world of phonetic invention — turning nonsensical utterings into fluid language.

“Language can also deceive us. Sometimes, there aren’t words for what you’re thinking, or what you feel. So I’m examining what happens in this space between — when you don’t know the words and the mind lags behind,” she says about her upcoming Glossolalia premiere.

According to Ásta, language is one of the great, governing forces of cultural existence. “We perceive the world through how we speak. That’s how reality is made. We change it by changing our outlook,” she suggests.

A lack of labels

Ásta doesn’t want to spoil too much about her piece, opting to rather discuss the various concepts Glossolalia prompts. Functionally, the piece incorporates methods of music, installation, video, sound and performance art, partly centred on the connection between reality and fantasy.

“The subject matters in the piece are very specific,” Ásta clarifies, “but it’s a lot about the liminal space between imagination and reality. I’m also going into how we use language to express stories about ourselves, human history and the earth. It’s all over the place,” she laughs. “[The piece] touches on the question: what narratives are around us and what story are we telling ourselves?”

With a focus on the internal and external realities of human condition, it could be argued that Glossolalia includes a faint element of spirituality. “I think I work a lot with something related to spirituality, although I wouldn’t claim to be spiritual,” she says. Overall, Ásta rejects attempts to box Glossolalia in.

“It’s interesting how things are marketed. Like now, I’m about to say, ‘This is a spiritual piece.’ Because the systems have been put into place, people start building expectations,” she retorts.

“It’s more of a piece that grasps at what is intangible. It’s trying to show something that’s invisible. Talk about something that is profane. You’re pointing to something that’s dissipating, and that’s the piece,” Ásta adds.

Reflecting the artist’s philosophies, Ásta’s language surrounding the piece seems to imbue it with a life on its own. “You can’t really pin it down to any specific kind of piece. It doesn’t want to be defined in a specific way. Because then, the possibilities are so open — anything can happen,” she says excitedly.

“That’s a part of how I operate with performance. I enjoy stretching the barriers and going completely out of bounds, or travelling into the piece’s centre and letting it implode,” she concludes.

Endless possibilities

Commenting on Glossolalia’s spatial dimension, Ásta expects the art to rapidly explore the spectrum of distance with the viewer. At times, she describes, the piece moves rapidly to and from the spectator.

“It perhaps works with moments which are, like, ‘Here is distance,’ and suddenly there’s instant closeness. This movement can be an interesting medium in itself, to be stretching the moment like a piece of gum,” Ásta says. “It’s more mundane, in a way that it almost shouldn’t be performed in Eldborg,” she smiles.

I think I work a lot with something related to spirituality, although I wouldn’t claim to be spiritual.”

Set in Harpa’s largest and most opulent auditorium, Ásta relishes the opportunity to transform the venue. The home to the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Eldborg is inherently saturated with classical tension and high cultural connotations.

Admittedly, Ásta is in awe of Eldborg’s possibilities for an unconventional staging. “It’s exciting because it’s so overwhelming,” she remarks. “It has an intense vibe and it’s dangerous territory. That’s why it becomes such a fascinating subject — it’s so charged that it can’t be neutral.”

Here, Glossolalia encapsulates Ásta’s core philosophy: the idea of endless possibilities. In harmony with her thesis is Ásta’s rejection of any sort of dependence on a single medium. When asked if she feels drawn to a certain method, she dismisses the question.

“It’s funny to think about mediums like they’re an independent entity. A floating set which is connected and disparate,” she points out. “I think the main thing about these sets is how people perceive them and relate to them. And that’s where the outlook comes in and what people think it is.”

“These floating sets, they don’t exist. The only thing that exists are boxes behind bars which people have decided on. This box is not, ‘This is poetry.’ This box is just our expectations and rules within this art form,” Ásta argues.

Ásta shares that, before working on a piece, her process includes scoping out the intended venue to identify its possibilities, context, and preconceived rules. “There’s constantly an invisible structure keeping you in,” she explains. “You think there isn’t, but there’s always something. That’s interesting to deconstruct,” Ásta livens up. “To think, ‘How can I open this up? Can I open this up more?’ That’s sort of how I operate. Ultimate freedom, always,” she grins.

Dark Music Days take place between January 24-26. See Ásta Fanney’s Glossolalia premiere on January 24. General admission to the festival is 15.000 ISK, with single tickets available on Tix.is.