Happening This Week: The Past, “Presence” and The Future

It’s a new year. A time of reflection and resolutions. Of reflecting on what’s been and resolving not to do it again. The calendar on the wall has been replaced, and there are still 350 blank little boxes left to scribble on. Seems just the time for artists and musicians around town to be exploring their own sense of space and time. So if you’re not too busy unfollowing your Facebook “friends” or setting goals for your next 100 years, here are a few suggestions that are happening here and now.

ART

‘The Oracle’ — Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir
Wind and Weather Gallery
Kathy Clark is an expert at being “in the moment.” Nearly a decade ago she came to Iceland as an artist and opened up the Window Gallery on Laugavegur, a one-window display that snaps passive street-walkers into a moment of observation. The gallery has wince moved down to Hverfisgata and added a “Wind and Weather” to its title. The premise is the same, and the space is still a single window. To open 2017 Kathy is collaborating with three artists; Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Ásta Fanney Siguðarsdóttir and Katrín Inga Jonsdóttir Hjördísardóttir, on the three-part performance: “Presence: The Oracle, The Consultant, The Masseuse” On Friday, Ásdís Sif takes the space for her closing ceremony as “Madame Lillith the Oracle.” Figure out what it means to be present by getting a glimpse at your future.
Madame Lillith ceremony on Friday, January 20 from 17:00-19:00.
Ásta Fanney opens as “The Consultant” on January 23.

‘Eunoia’—Lorena Sendic Silvera
Hitt Husið
People are weird. Fascinating, delicate, gorgeous, ugly and as Jim Morrison once famously decried, strange. Lorena Sendic Silvera is a photographer and graphic designer from Germany. Last year she bought a one-way ticket to Iceland and did what she knows best: photograph. Instead of roaming outward for the sprawling landscapes that make Iceland “Iceland,” she got intimate. She photographed the people around her and turned around the portrait of a journey. Get to know Sendic and the people she got to know.
Exhibit runs until January 21.

‘Drawing Spatially’—Monika Grzymala
BERG Contemporary
“Walk in the room like you own the place” is advice that Monika Grzymala has taken to a totally new, creative level. She is known for creating three-dimensional spatial drawings using industrial tape applied to an exhibition space’s architecture. At the same time she enters a room, in this case BERG Contemporary, she enters herself—seeking a “spiritual inner space” that the location inspires. She then jots down ink drawings and selects her materials. The installation process itself is described as a dance. There is a lot of spatial here and now in this woman’s work, but you’re not going to get your chakras aligned just by entering. You might get tangled up in her 3-dimensional silver drawings, though.
Exhibit runs until February 25.

MUSIC

Tappi Tíkarrass
Húrra
The charmingly titled Tappi Tíkarrass (“Cork The Bitch’s Ass,” in English) began, in their own words “as a boy band,” in 1981. Apparently boy bands in Iceland, back then, made messy, chaotic, lo-fi punk rock. Things really kicked off when they recruited a certain Björk Guðmundsdóttir, and despite splitting in 1983, the band entered local music legend. Now, they’re back, having reformed to play Reykjavík’s new punk museum recently—”once again a boy band (or man band),” as they say on the Facebook event—and they’re headlining Húrra. So if you wanna see this seminal Icelandic group splutter back to life like a punk-rock Frankenstein, get your ass down to Húrra. And hope they don’t cork it.
Thursday, January 19 at 20:00

MOVIES

Moonlight
Bíó Paradís
It seems like there was some big collective sigh of relief when 2016 ended. That’s great. It’s great to rally together toward hopeful and shining futures. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Barry Jenkins reminds us of the tremours of human life in his Golden Globe winning movie ‘Moonlight.’ It’s a poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship and a portrait of contemporary African American life. There’s still struggle, as if any of us forgot, but Barry shows us that struggle in beautiful pastels and the humid glow of Miami. On Friday Bíó Paradís hosts the Icelandic premier of ‘Moonlight.’
Opens January 20 at 17:45, 20:00 and 22:15.