Hamraborg Festival: Sprawling And Site-Specific

This festival’s fifth iteration is its biggest thus far

For the past five summers, Hamraborg Festival has marked the coming of autumn in its celebration of the sprawling hub of Hamraborg in Kópavogur. Starting August 29, boundary-pushing artists will permeate the arterial and eponymous street of Hamraborg; art and performance will materialise in Krónan, Póló Vape Shop, a tunnel, Euro Market, a parking garage, and more. This year is their biggest yet, with over 60 projects making up the week-long schedule.

Hamraborg Festival sprouted from the community around now-closed artist-run space Midpunkt, and the festival carries on the space’s penchant for “fun and weird” art (as described by former curator Ragnheiður Sigurðardóttir Bjarnarson) in unlikely spaces (Midpunkt was in the basement of a former ice cream store). The festival is now curated by Jo Pawłowska, a former curator of Midpunkt, visual artist Agnes Ársælsdóttir, and composer and educator Pétur Eggertsson.

Many of this year’s festival offerings are site-specific, meaning the work is designed exclusively for Hamraborg. Before the festival takes over Kópavogur, the Grapevine had the opportunity to hear from artists giving a variety of offerings to this year’s festival: an installation, a workshop, and sound work.

Installation: Filling the cracks

Megan Auður’s How do we care for the cracks that remain? is a “sculptural intervention” that will take place in cracks in the pavement around Hamraborg. The artist, activist, and social worker explains that she creates ceramic pieces to fill cracks in pavement, making a work that is “tailored to and created in Hamraborg.”

“In the creation of the piece, I often end up in conversations with passersby, curious about what I am doing,” Megan explains. When I ask about potential passersby, Megan says, first and foremost, “Well, I’m excited to show my 7-year-old niece, who lives and goes to school in the neighbourhood,” then adds, “Apart from her, I am just excited about this minimal intervention. It’s the kind of piece that can go unnoticed, but once you notice it, it makes you notice more of the details in your surroundings.”

Workshop: Archiving Hamraborg

Lu (aka @wetbog.jpg) is known for their work in print media and illustration, often employing silly characters and the vibrant colours that come from risograph printing. Their exhibition Primordial Bouillon Cube — which will consist of “a lot of slime, biological networks, circuit boards, transness and primordial soup” — will sit among canned peas and soup in the coveted gallery space of Euro Market.

She also welcomes all to the Kópavogur Library (Bókasafn Kópavogs) from 14:00-16:00 on Saturday, August 30, for a zine-making workshop. Lu’s been involved with the recent zine fairs of both the Nordic House and LHÍ’s RÝMD, specifically encouraging all to share their stories with Hamraborg itself, which will be compiled into a zine after the festival. Here, they hope people will share “collective imaginings about the local area, memories and emotions.” Further, she adds, “I have a strong hope that the output will be something that can be given back to Hamraborg to archive these accounts, however silly they are.”

Photo by Heiðrún Fivelstad

Sound work: Spatial facilitation

On August 31, at 15:30, artist Zekarias Musele Thompson will lead a walk through Hamraborg. spatial facilitation (the artist is presence) — Zekarias’s event — will see them playing their alto saxophone as they travel Hamraborg. To them, the aim is “seeing what dialogue comes up between myself, the instrument, and the objects/beings in the space that I encounter.” Concurrently, the audio of their saxophone will be broadcast to the restaurant and bar Catalína, and anyone can choose to listen from there as opposed to joining the walk. At the end, Zekarias will take the stage — “I will then join myself on stage,” as they put it — and play, then welcome a conversation about the experience as a whole.

Whether you hope to join a workshop or visit an exhibition (or both!), Hamraborg Festival will run from August 29 to September 5. All events are free, and the programme can be found at hamraborgfestival.is