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Down a side street in downtown Reykjavik, a sharply dressed crowd is huddled inside an elegant wood-panelled room, masses of bodies packed sardine-like into the cosy space. Pencil-sketched portraits on the walls seem faintly amused as they survey the scene: the men, their fulsome beards coaxed and coiffed into neat topiary, manoeuvre for more space, and brightly-lipsticked women grasp glasses tightly and crane their necks to get a good look. It could almost be a snapshot from a typical Saturday night out – the Nordic city is known for its love of partying and the legendary “runtur” – but it’s not.
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The crowds gathered tonight aren’t here for the booze – they’re here for a performance at Hotel Holt.
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After a few minutes of tension-building pause, a young man – all aviator sunglasses and flying jacket – enters the room and saunters through the crowd in super slow motion to a backing track of rock music, before disappearing round the corner, out of public sight. Sigurður Ámundason’s piece Snake Cool appears as a simple performance perhaps, but as commentary on the twin cults of fame and adulation, the resulting void is strangely deflating. In the next room sits artist Magnús Logi Kristinsson in a white box, a single arm and leg protruding whilst onlookers muse on the meaning of it all. Simultaneously, at the hotel’s reception desk visitors are lining up to request the key to Room 206, where a solitary encounter with Hans Rosenström’s soundscape awaits and unnerves all those who enter.
Magnús Logi Kristinsson at Hotel Holt
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This is the sixth edition of Sequences Art festival, a biannual festival dedicated to visual and time-based art, with specific focus on pieces that reflect the everyday life of the artist. Whilst Iceland’s well-known attractions – jaw-dropping landscapes, midnight sun, the Northern Lights, and of course, the capital’s unique party scene – are steadily drawing increasing numbers of visitors in the summer and winter months, those who travel in the spring will find something else to delight: Reykjavik’s cultural scene in full swing.
Reykjavik art museum
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For a city with a population of just 200,000 (smaller than the London borough of Hackney), the sheer volume of cultural output is impressive, with the aforementioned Sequences preceded by fashion and design weeks in March and followed by both the Reykjavik Arts festival and the Reykjavik Shorts & Docs festival in May. The woman at the tourist office sums it up in typical straightforward Icelandic fashion, “We’re a small country trying to do a lot of things.” A walk around the city is enough to prove her right.
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Dr Markús Þór Andrésson, curator of Sequences VI, puts this prodigious output down to context and the DIY mentality induced in Icelanders by virtue of their isolated position, “Everybody knows that they’re stuck on this island here, that there’s nobody else doing this, so you better do it yourself,” he says. “The same goes for the music scene here, it’s a very lively scene. It’s an initiative you have because of where you are situated in the world. You’re alone here on the island and that means you do it yourself.”
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That spirit definitely shows. Eyes can feast on the street art, which forms the backdrop to many of Reykjavik’s genteel facades. Cartoonish faces and graphic murals peer over fences, whilst independent artist-run spaces such as Kling & Bang and Kunstschlager are home to more experimental art. It’s with their support that Sequences was formed in 2006 as an alternative to the long-running Reykjavik Arts festival. Despite the difficulties encountered by foreign attendees in finding the exhibits – Andrésson admits choosing more unusual venues such as storage spaces and personal museums to echo the intimacy of the artworks, at the risk of not reaching some – the excitement at discovering the city through its art may prove to be its own reward.
Rebecca Erin Moran at Hotel Holt
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For those who prefer to skip the thrill of the chase, institutional heavyweights like the Reykjavik Art Museum, the National Museum of Iceland and the National Gallery of Iceland, exhibit a plethora of works by established homegrown talent. Guðmundur Guðmundsson’s (aka Erró) comic pieces are on display at Harfnarhús whilst the Einar Jónsson Museum houses a treasure trove of his sculpture. A Reykjavik Welcome Card gets visitors into most exhibitions around town for free, but the Alvar Aalto-designed Nordic House and the glittering Harpa concert hall are open to all. Once you’re done with immersing yourself in the city’s cultural offerings for the day? Well, now might be time to turn attention to its other talents, find the nearest Happy Hour and relax, Reykjavik-style.
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by Jane Duru
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For more information, please go to the Visit Reykjavik site