KRAFS Creates From Scratch At The National Gallery

From June 30 to July 6, an open collaborative project named KRAFS will take over The Workshop (Verkstæðið) in the National Gallery of Iceland. Throughout that week, they will run an experimental project with a repeating daily schedule of open hours, rehearsal, break, prep, and a concert. Anyone is welcome to join, for any part of the schedule they choose.

Pétur Eggertsson, composer and artist, and Ragnar Árni Ólafsson, guitarist and composer, united over their interest in British composer Cornelius Cardew and his late-1960s project The Scratch Orchestra. Pétur explains that The Scratch Orchestra was, “an amalgamation of artists from various disciplines: composers, performers, writers, visual artists, etc. The group would meet regularly to co-create works of music (a very loose term in this context), rehearse and perform.”

This “amalgamation of artists” is open and wide-ranging; KRAFS has made it clear that all are welcome to take part, regardless of prior artistic training. In their advertisement, they simply write, “Open to all. Skills unimportant.” Pétur refers back to The Scratch Orchestra, stating, “Some members were professionally trained, while others had little prior experience with music making,” the only qualifier being that, “all shared a general interest in community building and music as a social activity.”

Experimentally minded

After conceiving the idea, Ragnar and Pétur assembled a group of friends, family and acquaintances to be “core members” who would attend their open workshops. Pétur explains that, “Just as the Scratch Orchestra, the group includes artists from various practices, both trained and untrained in different fields, a community of experimentally minded folks.”
“In their advertisement, they simply write, ‘Open to all. Skills unimportant.'”

From there, it was time to find a space to house the project. “Listasafn Íslands was up for the experiment,” Pétur tells me, adding that the National Museum had offered their old café on the top floor, which now houses Verkstæðið. Having a spot with lots of visitor traffic is ideal for the project, as Pétur says that they, “hope that curious bypassers will come and create, rehearse and perform with us, no matter if it’s only for a short while or the whole week.”

Playful and curious

Asked about the reasoning behind KRAFS, Pétur states that the word is firstly “an Icelandic word describing the sound of a scratch,” as an homage to The Scratch Orchestra. But further, the word also means “a scribble” and, “something you may earn out of a situation,” with an example there being that a dumpster diver would, “get something from the krafs.” “These three meanings perfectly describe what we’re going to attempt at the museum in the beginning of July,” Pétur concludes.

With a fitting title and fascinating concept, the group is optimistic about the project. “Curiosity and playfulness can be wonderful allies to creators,” Pétur notes, adding, “We hope that we can light a curious spark of inspiration, even if it is only momentarily.” I ask if he has any specific hopes for participation, and he returns an open-minded answer: “It’s best to go into this with no expectation and see what will happen.”

If you want to see what will happen too, join KRAFS at any point between June 30 and July 6 in the National Gallery of Iceland’s Verkstæðið. You can learn more about them at krafs.org