Happening This Week: Normcore, Norðanpaunk and Charity

“I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turns out I was just really bored” -Wayne Campbell

Yeah, we’ve all been there. It can be hard to get out and see the world when the snow is coming at you sideways and *sigh* there’s just nothing really going on anymore. But this isn’t Aurora, Illinois, it’s Reykjavík. It’s the big city! It might be a small big city, and it might be snowing sideways, but there is definitely something out there you haven’t seen or heard yet. Here are a few suggestions to get you out of mom’s basement this week.

ART

‘Squint’ — Cecilia Durand
Harbinger Project Space
Cecilia Durand grew up bouncing around the globe, following her father’s anthropological studies. As a girl she stayed on the Andaman Islands for a couple months of each year, a place she describes as “islands with no seasons…Yesterday will become today. We wake up, search for food and sit down with the rewards of the day. The stars appear in the sky and we unite with the rest of the world in our admiration of the endlessness of the universe. In the morning the horizon appears again and sets the stage for a roleplay of a bygone era.” Cecilia will be the first exhibiting artist of Harbinger’s ongoing series ‘Island.’
Exhibit runs until January 29

‘Normality is the New Avant Garde’
Gerðarsafn – Kópavogur Art Museum
“Look at this. Who can say it isn’t beautiful? Sky, bricks. Who do you think lives there? Four-car garage. Hope, fear, excitement, satisfaction.” In 1986 David Byrne, lead singer of the Talking Heads, narrated his way through small suburban America in the movie “True Stories.” The landscapes, the people, everything about the movie is entirely mediocre—everyday—but with his presentation it becomes hilarious and fascinating. On Friday eleven artists open the collaborative exhibit ‘Normality is the New Avant Garde’ at Gerðarsafn-Kópavogur Art Museum. The exhibit explores the everyday from the perspective of the eleven artists, “imbuing the ordinary with new meaning by placing it in a new and unexpected context.” Works presented vary: from international to local, from site-specific to previously shown to no-longer-showable.
Opening on Friday, 13 December at 20:00. Exhibit runs until March 12.

Elín Hansdóttir’s ‘Simulacrum’
i8 Gallery
The ever-reliable i8 gallery plays host to one of Iceland’s most interesting contemporary artists, Elín Hansdóttir, throughout January and until February 4. She’s ostensibly a sculptor, but this show is a simulated sculptural installation, consisting of wall-based photographs of a large bunch of deteriorating flowers hanging in midair, shedding their petals over a square plinth and the gallery floor. To complicate matters further, they’re hanging in the exact space that the gallery’s solid-looking central pillar occupies. Elín employed a variety of painstaking old-school effects techniques to create, photograph, and then disassemble the installation, creating a subtle illusion that warps your perception of the space with ingenious sleight of hand.
Exhibit runs until February 4.

MUSIC

Lifið Er Núna Charity Concert
Kex Hostel
This charity concert, featuring Emilíana Torrini, Emmsjé Gauti, Hildur and helmets, is part of the Krafts “Life is now” campaign, which seeks to raise money for dealing with cancer. Admission is free, but volunteers will sell bracelets and sign people up for contributions to the charity.
Wednesday, 11 December at 19:00

In The Company of Men + KLIKK Album Release Concert
Húrra
Despite the tidal wave of rap that’s been sweeping over Reykjavík in the past year or two, fans of loud guitars (you’re still out there, right? U guys ok?) will be happy to know that somewhere in a dank practice room, dudes in t-shirts didn’t stop bashing out distorted, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll. One such group is the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin In The Company Of Men, who are throwing an album release party at Húrra on January 12. Support comes from chaotic upstarts KLIKK. It’s always nice to have the option of drinking your beer, or throwing it in the air through a sea of fliailing limbs, right?
Thursday, 12 December

Norðanpaunk Warm Up
Gaukurinn
Norðanpaunk is a yearly gathering of everyone who isn’t or doesn’t want to be invited to yearly gatherings. It’s a DIY festival held over Merchant’s Weekend where the wild and weird spin out of Reykjavík for a late-summer weekend of hot tubs and a capella, black metal in the countryside and punk at the banks of the “beautiful river.” It’s about as DIY as it gets except for the part where they DI-with-your-kind-contributions. Which is where Friday night’s Norðanpaunk Warm Up Concert I comes into play. Featuring Godchilla, Madonna and Child, MeinhoF (DK) and Dauðyflin.
Friday, 13 December 20:00

MOVIES

Wayne’s World
Bíó Paradís
“Will you still love me when I’m in my carbohydrate, sequined-jumpsuit, young-girls-in-white-cotton-panties, waking-up-in-a-pool-of-your-own-vomit, bloated-purple-dead-on-a-toilet phase?” Yes we will, Wayne, yes we will. For all you happy slackers, Bíó Paradís is having a special screening of Wayne’s World at 20:00.
Friday, 13 December at 20:00