Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.07.2003, Page 20

- the reykjavík grapevine -20 july 25th - august 7th, 2003 - the reykjavík grapevine - 21july 25th - august 7th, 2003
LISTINGS
T R U E S T O R I E S
KEFLAVíK, WE HAVE
A PROBLEM
selected works by Icelandic artists from the
National Gallery's collection.
National and University Library, Exhibition of the
founder of the city´s documentation, also, childrens
literature, texts and drawings.
Culture House, Images of Iceland - milestones in
cartography
Norræna húsið, Nordic House, The Big Nordic
Elephant Show
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, The Five
Elements. Photographs and etchings from French-
Vietnamese artist Claire Xuan.
Ásmundarsafn, Sculpture museum, The
Modern Man, works of popular sculptor Ásmundar
Sveinsson.
Einar Jónsson Sculpture Museum, The works of
Iceland´s first modern sculptor.
Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík Art Museum, -10 to
17 -Lobster or Fame Two Decades of Bad Taste
Ltd. Also Erró´s War paintings and Insight into
international contemporary art in Iceland. Admission
500 ISK. Free on Mondays.
Kjarvalsstaðir Art Museum, -10 to 17 -New times
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Hafnarborg Art Gallery, -11 to 17 -US artist
Barbara Cooper exhibits drawings.
Light Nights Summer Theatre, -starts at 20:30
-Real authentic Icelandic show performed in English,
including the most thrilling ghost story ever told;
The Deacon of Myrká
Night
Dubliners, Troubadour Ingi Valur
Tuesday, July 29
Both Day and Night
Austurvöllur out door exhibition, Earth from
Above. Aerial Photographs by Yann Arthus-
Bertrand.
Day
Reðursafnið, Phallological Museum, A fine
penis and penis related selection from various
mammals.
Árbæjarsafn, Folk Museum, An exhibition shows
life and work in the years 1950-60.
National Gallery of Iceland, Exhibition of
selected works by Icelandic artists from the
National Gallery's collection.
National and University Library, Exhibition of the
founder of the city´s documentation, also, childrens
literature, texts and drawings.
Culture House, Images of Iceland - milestones in
cartography
Norræna húsið, Nordic House, The Big Nordic
Elephant Show
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, The Five
Elements. Photographs and etchings from French-
Vietnamese artist Claire Xuan.
Ásmundarsafn, Sculpture museum, The
Modern Man, works of popular sculptor Ásmundar
Sveinsson.
Einar Jónsson Sculpture Museum, The works of
Iceland´s first modern sculptor.
Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík Art Museum, -10 to
17 -Lobster or Fame Two Decades of Bad Taste
Ltd. Also Erró´s War paintings and Insight into
international contemporary art in Iceland. Admission
500 ISK. Free on Mondays.
Kjarvalsstaðir Art Museum, -10 to 17 -New times
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Handverk og Hönnun, -13 to 17 -Exhibition of
contemporary and traditional Icelandic art and
crafts.
Sigurjón Ólafsson Sculpture Museum, -14 to 17
-Portraits and Abstractions
Gallery Hlemmur.is, -14 to 18 -"Look out for my
Love, it´s in your neighbourhood", some works of
Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir
ASÍ. Art Museum, -14 to 18 -Icelandic art from
1950-1970
Viðey Island, -19:30 -A walk around Viðey Island
with a look at the wild life.
Night
Dubliners, Troubadour Ingi Valur
Wednesday, July 30
Both Day and Night
Austurvöllur out door exhibition, Earth from
Above. Aerial Photographs by Yann Arthus-
Bertrand.
Day
Reðursafnið, Phallological Museum, A fine
penis and penis related selection from various
mammals.
Árbæjarsafn, Folk Museum, An exhibition shows
life and work in the years 1950-60.
National Gallery of Iceland, Exhibition of
selected works by Icelandic artists from the
National Gallery's collection.
National and University Library, Exhibition of the
founder of the city´s documentation, also, childrens
literature, texts and drawings.
Culture House, Images of Iceland - milestones in
cartography
Norræna húsið, Nordic House, The Big Nordic
Elephant Show
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, The Five
Elements. Photographs and etchings from French-
Vietnamese artist Claire Xuan.
Ásmundarsafn, Sculpture museum, The
Modern Man, works of popular sculptor Ásmundar
Sveinsson.
Einar Jónsson Sculpture Museum, The works of
Iceland´s first modern sculptor.
Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík Art Museum, -10 to
17 -Lobster or Fame Two Decades of Bad Taste
Ltd. Also Erró´s War paintings and Insight into
international contemporary art in Iceland. Admission
500 ISK. Free on Mondays.
Kjarvalsstaðir Art Museum, -10 to 17 -New times
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Handverk og Hönnun, -13 to 17 -Exhibition of
contemporary and traditional Icelandic art and
So the summer continued. I had a
chance to return to home to spend
some days with my boys Jake and Harry.
Willed myself out of bed at 5.00am
to catch the early flight to Heathrow.
Keflavik Airport was its usual July self,
a snake of passengers worked their way
via the cordons to the check-in desks,
most as blurry eyed as me. The walk
from the security is almost as long as
the journey from Reykjavik. The reason
why the passport control is situated
so far from the heart of the airport is
found in one word - Schengen. Whoever
or whatever Schengen is, it seems
that he she or it has done a fine job in
creating unnecessary hassle. Why? For
no good reason is why. But it is the way
this Schengen seems to operate. The
name actually sounds like a mythical
creature, if that is the case, then the
people of Iceland have really upset
him. He makes you and your visitors
walk needlessly from point to point at
unfriendly hours of the morning, whilst
making some of your nations finest
sit wearing guns in bullet proof boxes,
checking passports. We live in times of
global uncertainty, the axis of evil etc.
But, if Islamic fundamentalists are going
to strike, Icelandic passport control will
not be high on their list of strategic
priorities. These passport officers seem
uncomfortable in their uniforms and gun
belts, as do their female counterparts
newly trained at the ‘full service’ TGI
Friday’s in Reykjavik. State policing
and service seem refreshingly alien to
Iceland’s youth.
I boarded the plane and eyed the
safety video. It had a cheery section of
a 7 whatever 7, floating in the sea with
life rafts around it. A regular traveller, I
of course ignored the video and read
instead. We climbed away from the city
and levelled off at a cruising altitude,
when the words, “Ladies and gentlemen,
we are experiencing a problem with
one of our engines we are returning to
Keflavik.” They were as welcome as a
positive blood test.
One of our engines? A glance at the
wing confirmed that we only had two.
I looked around ready for the
inevitable panic which would have
gripped my fellow travellers and took the
opportunity to show some sang-froid, to
see there was absolutely no reaction
from the Icelanders who made up the
bulk of the passengers. The group of
drunken students who had been up all
night, started to sing “Ground control to
Major Tom” and continued to swig from
beer bottles. The remainder sat in silent
indifference while this seasoned traveller
began to panic. The old woman and her
son sitting next to me were amongst the
few non-Icelanders on the flight. They
were from Somalia. How they ended
up in Reykjavik is another story, but he
had fallen asleep the moment we took
off, while she sat huddled in her shawl,
gazing at the folded tray-table. I thought
of family friends and listened anxiously
to every sound from the engine as the
aircraft banked hard to retrace our
course.
There’s time to reflect in moments
like these. Why no reaction from the
Icelanders? They are Lutherans not
Buddhists, a hymn might have been
appropriate. Certainly, in America, the
aircraft would have filled with the chant
‘Oh my God…! In Italy, passengers would
have crossed themselves, gabbling and
arguing. Anywhere in South America, we
would have a riot on our hands. But here
we are, 29,000 feet over the Atlantic
with only one functioning engine and
there was - nothing. Screens showed an
ancient rerun of a ‘Friends’ episode and
the passengers sat watching, oblivious
to the drama they were part of. For me
the image of the aircraft in the ocean
beckoned and it occurred that I had
actually never seen a floating aircraft in
my life before.
I was brought up on a rich diet
of black and white movies, the Dam
Busters’ school, ample material for my
fear-loaded imagination. The pilot would
doubtless be wriggling in his seat, brow-
furrowed and adopting that calm in a
crisis tone that generates panic in all of
us who think we know better. The co-pilot
would be flicking switches and making
‘Mayday’ calls, before the aircraft was
given the ultimate test of its amphibious
potential. The female purser, beautiful
in a way that had survived a million
drunken leers, would be preparing
herself to issue the big one - the numero
uno of in-flight announcements ‘Ladies
and gentlemen please adopt the crash
position!’ I reached below me and was
comforted to find, for the first time in my
life, the bouyancy aid.
I looked around the aircraft newly
comforted and impressed by my
partners in crisis. I felt a fraternal charge
with people who showed such phlegm,
spunk, pluck (all sound pretty terrible I
know, but that’s the way the great book,
the Oxford Dictionary, tells us is what we
show in the face of adversity.)
We pierced the low cloud that now
enveloped Keflavik and landed without
further incident or comment from the
passengers. My heart rate returned to
normal and the Icelanders made no
remark as we were asked to disembark
the aircraft, and endured the long wait
for an announcement and inevitable
disruption to their timetables. A call that
would send other nations into apoplexy,
in Iceland it did not elicit a shrug. What
I’m trying to say is that they coped. No
drama queens, no hissy fits, no ‘ you’ll be
hearing from my lawyers’, just a shrug
and let´s get on with it. And I like them all
the more for it.
Oh yes, the Somalians. The mother
remained transfixed throughout and the
son awoke as we arrived at the terminal
– He looked at his watch and then asked
‘London?’
‘No’. I smiled, enjoying the new
found confidence that only terra firma
can produce. ‘No, not London - Keflavik
– we have a problem’.
Iceland air Flight 105 returned to
service a day later (?).
Copyright
Robert J Jackson 2003
Robert Jackson is a writer. He divides
his time between Reykjavik, Vik and
the UK. His first book 69 Degrees
North, an adventure love story with
an environmental twist, is available at
Penninn Eymundsson, Austurstraeti 18
or through Amazon.com.
A plane carrying passengers full of phlegm, spunk and pluck.
World Press Photo
2003 Kringlan shop-
ping mall
Until August 2nd
When you have finished your tax-free
shopping at the Kringlan shopping
mall, it is time to balance your ma-
terialistic urges with more cultural
entertainment. Put the bags down,
take your time to walk through the
mall and have a look at the panels that
present international photojournalism
at its best.
The world has not yet become a good
place to be born in, and the flashy sale
advertisements of Kringlan shops cre-
ate an ironical background to pictures
of mourning and violence. The World
Press Photo contest has by now
achieved a reputation of prestige and
high professional standards and the
2003 winning entries are no exception.
Fortunately, there are also categories
such as nature and the environment,
portrait and daily life, so you can
always cheer yourself up again with
a giant Leonardo di Caprio head, Chi-
nese monks during a Kung-Fu practice
or National Geographic landscapes.
The second part of the exhibition
presents photographs by Ólafur
K.Magnússon (1926 - 1997), a pho-
tographer associated with the largest
Icelandic national paper, Morgun-
blaðið. Ólafur studied photography
in Hollywood, joined Morgunblaðið
immediately after his return to Ice-
land in 1947 and stayed working for
the newspaper for almost fifty years.
He was the first Icelander to make
photojournalism his full-time, life-long
occupation. The exhibition includes
portraits of Icelandic artists and
politicians, daily life snapshots from all
parts of the country as well as pictures
that document important events in
Icelandic history. A unique opportunity
to see Icelandic farmers observing the
1954 solar eclipse or to learn what the
centre of Reykjavik looked like when
the parliament voted for Iceland’s af-
filiation to NATO in 1949 and the not
so happy citizens took to smashing its
windows with stones.
Fictional Reykjavík
City Library
Saturday July 26th
A literary walking tour of the down-
town area, starting at the Reykjavík
City Library in Tryggvagata 15 (only
seconds away from the downtown
Tourist Information). There will be a
short introduction at the library about
Icelandic literature and films based on
Icelandic novels, and then the guides
will take you to some downtown sites
that play a roll in Icelandic fiction. The
tour is free of charge and will be run
every Friday, starts at 16.