Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.05.2008, Síða 45

The annual Reykjavík Arts Festival is just
behind the corner and as usual, the Reykjavík
Art Museum will present a packed programme
for the occasion. One of the festival’s high-
lights is the Experiment Marathon Reykjavik,
an exhibition and program of various events,
organised by the Reykjavík Art Museum and the
Serpentine Gallery in London. On Friday, May
16, the museum at Hafnarhús will transform into
a laboratory for the next three months where
over forty leading local and international artists,
architects, film-makers and scientists will create
an environment of invention through a series
of installations, screenings, performances and
experimental films.
The Marathon is curated by Hans Ulrich
Obrist, Director of International Projects and
Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes for
the Serpentine Gallery in London; in collabora-
tion with artist Ólafur Elíasson. They’ve done
everything in their power to promote art and
science to the public in a diverse and entertain-
ing way with numerous intriguing experiments,
exhibitions, performances, workshops and
panel discussions exploring the connection
between art and science. To enrich the whole
experience, the audience is supposed to take
part in the events.
The focus of the project is experimenta-
tion in all its forms and numerous international
artists and scientist will do curious exhibitions
and experiments. To name just a few, a project
organised by Mexican artist Pedro Ryes, ‘Ideas
for Iraq’, focuses on the state of the war in Iraq
where participants will be able to illustrate their
strategies towards possible solutions for the war.
Scientist and hydrogen expert, Þorsteinn Ingi
Sigfússon, will do the performance ‘The Taming
of the Proton’ while artist Marina Abramovic will
take the audience on a soul exploration journey
in an experiment with German psychosexual
therapist Dr. Ruth and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
The list also includes electronic musician and
record producer Brian Eno, who will presents
sound installations, Hungarian artist Attila
Csörgo and Luc Steels, a professor of Artificial
Intelligence at the University of Brussels.
Nature as a Phenomenon
Interesting exhibitions will also open at
Reykjavík Art Museum’s second largest venue,
Kjarvalsstaðir, during the Art Festival. In the
collaborative exhibition ‘Dreams of the Sublime
and Nowhere’, surator Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir
brings together a group of Icelandic artists of
different backgrounds and generations (Ragnar
Kjartansson, Icelandic Love Corporation, Ólafur
Elíasson and Spessi, among others) to explore
the place of the “sublime” in Icelandic visual
arts. Different ideas of nature and natural
phenomena in photographic and video art will
be presented. The exhibition features early
twentieth-century black-and-white landscape
photographs to multi-media installations with
the aim to “showcases diverse visions and
interpretations of the “sublime” and “nowhere”,
through classical, melancholic, ironic, or radi-
cally ecological images”.
As an opposition to Sigurjónsdóttir’s
exhibition, American landscape architect
and visual artist Martha Schwarts will display
an aluminium-installation in the courtyard of
Kjarvalsstaðir. Her installation is titled ‘I Hate
Nature’ and “alludes both to the artist’s experi-
ence of nature as explored in the exhibition
Dreams of the Sublime and Nowhere and to the
debate over environmental protection versus
exploitation”
And there is more. The North Gallery of Kjar-
valsstaðir, will see an exhibition for the whole
family, related to the nature theme of the afore-
mentioned exhibitions. Entitled ‘Where Am I?’
children and adults will be able to contemplate
their planet, their country, and the landmarks of
their environment through various games and
puzzles.
All these exhibitions will stay open through the
summer and entrance is always free. For more
info visit www.listasafnreykjavikur.is
Experimental Museum
The focus of the project
is experimentation in all
its forms and numerous
international artists and
scientist will do curious
exhibitions and experi-
ments.
EXPECT
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