Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Page 28

18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2009 Even though they're no journalists, we think these artists did a pretty good job of interview-
ing one another. Perhaps they'll invite us to make some art for them in the future?
Apparently there are no mandatory
rock show-like delays at a classical
lunch hour concert, so luckily I arrived
just in time. Pianist and curator Nína
Margrét Grímsdóttir took the stage,
welcomed the audience and explained
the day's concept: a non-verbal poetry
or instrumental song music. This, she
said, was a popular style in the 19th
century, where locating an unsung
melody is required of the listener. A
good concept, a kind of musical audi-
ence participation. In Grímsdóttir's
delivery of Mendelssohn's Liede ohne
Worte, op. 19 no 1, though, I experi-
enced trouble placing the melody, but
the song itself was pleasantly played,
short and delightful. Maybe I just
didn't connect with the piece. Maybe
it is best unsung, anyway.
Margrét Árnadóttir then joined
with her cello and together they played
Beethoven's variation in E flat major
on Mozart's Bei mannern, WoO 46,
or, in layman's terms: Mozart's Magic
Flute – Beethoven Remix. Really nice,
actually. This is a song originally writ-
ten with lyrics, since it is a part of the
famous opera, and I could definitely
hear the poetry coming from the
Cello. Árnadóttir did it justice, play-
ing both passionately and technically
proficient. Nína, however, felt stiff and
possibly under-rehearsed. Not that she
made any obvious mistakes, but I felt
her delivery was not as confident as
Margrét's.
I may not be a Mendelssohn fan
and given Margrét's and Nína's deliv-
ery of Romance Sans Paroles, op. 109
neither are they, but since the title
actually translates as 'A Song without
Words' they probably felt it should be
on the program.
The headlining number,
Beethoven's Sonata in A-major, op.
69 is a good piece. I've been listen-
ing to it on Grooveshark for a couple
of weeks, and Grímsdóttir and Árna-
dóttir worked it well. Obviously this
one had been rehearsed the most, but
I feel I would have gotten better into
it if Grímsdóttir had done a couple of
warm up exercises before the gig, as
the stiffness was apparently getting
in her way again, which really put a
damper on an otherwise good delivery.
The Gerðuberg Matinée Series is
a regular occurrence with free admit-
tance—I urge you to check it out this
winter. A full schedule may be found
at www.gerduberg.is
I'm No
Expert #1
The Gerðuberg
Matinée Series
Music | Aðalsteinn JörundssonArt | Interview
Egill Sæbjörnsson and Davíð Örn
Halldórsson are both prominent
young artists that have been raising
eyebrows all over for a while now. With
good reason, too, as their art is, in all
honesty, pretty damn good. Lucky for
us denizens of Reykjavík, then, that
both artists are displaying their works
in the area this month. To celebrate
the occasion, we got them to do brief
QnA sessions with one another.
Davíð asks Egill...
If you had the opportunity to write and
direct a full-length feature film, what
sort of film would you make?
I was recently thinking of how fun it
would be to make a movie that’s set
in Berlin around 1998, when I was in
the process of moving there. They had
a lot of underground bars and a great
music scene that later begat artists
like Peaches, Gonzales, Mignon, The
Puppetmastaz, Angie Reed, Kobrakill-
ers and even Feist. They would open
clubs at the tram conductors’ bath-
room facilities on Rosenthaler Platz,
and on Monday’s they’d open a bar in
one apartment, then it would move to
another one on Tuesdays. You had no
money, resided in coal heated apart-
ments and if you went out to eat it was
for a döner that set you back around
150 krónur. They’ll make that movie
eventually.
I’ve also envisioned a sci-fi f lick
set in Reykjavík and would be around
the band The End and their theories
on the end of the world. It was to be
based on the lives of Dóri and Maggi
from the band and their music, they
are great musicians.
Dóri had a lot of theories on the end
of the world, and he wrote a book about
it. He also thought he was Frodo from
Lord of the Rings at some point. This
would be a true story biopic based on
Dóri’s imagination and the awesome
singing talents of Maggi. I want Brad
Pitt to play Dóri. The world is FILLED
with stories. I could write an endless
amount of scripts, I think.
I heard you had a bunch of new songs
– will you be releasing them in the
coming seasons?
No question. I’ll try. It’s so fun. There’s
also a bunch of stuff that I’m upload-
ing to gogoyoko.com. It’s so easy to put
stuff up there. Soon, you can find a
few of the homemade records that I’ve
been releasing in fifty copies, some
rarities and also my first record, The
International Rock ‘n’ Roll Summer of
Egill Sæbjörnsson
What is Donald Judd doing in your
new exhibition?
In one of the works in the exhibition
I’ve put up a “fake show” with red
walls and all sorts of items and arte-
facts. It is meant to look like a typical
museum display. Two walls in the hall
then start talking about the items on
display. They are thus like props on a
stage. The Donald Judd sculpture is
one of the items they talk about. It also
has, for instance, a poster of the Harry
Potter film, a doll of “The Internet
Kid” and a videocassette of The Matrix
film, a framed spider, a quartz spear
from the stone age, a cornet, etc.
After all the wandering, is there any-
thing you miss about Reykjavík?
I have to say, I think Reykjavík is an
incredibly beautiful city. During the
economic boom years, a lot of the
houses downtown were worked on
and remodelled, now the houses in
Þingholt remind me more and more
of Kardimommubærinn. For a per-
son that’s raised in Paris, where the
average building is seven stories high,
and most of the houses were built 120
years ago, it’s like visiting a magic city.
I’ve lived abroad for almost fifteen
years, eleven of them in Berlin, and
have started viewing Reykjavík in a
completely different light.
Are you in good spirits?
I think being in good spirits is a fun-
damental thing. When so much is
happening, as is the case now, you are
in really good spirits. Not a question.
Egill Sæbjörnsson’s exhibit, Spirit of
Place and Narrative, is on display at the
Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús un-
til January 3 2010.
Egill asks Davíð...
What are you showing now in Ásmun-
darsafn? What is the works’ state of
mind?
It’s a co-exhibit where several Icelan-
dic artists display works based on the
works of Ásmundur Sveinsson and
Ásmundarsafn in general. My work is
based on a piece entitled Pýramídísk
abstraksjón (“Pyramidic Abstrac-
tion”), I painted a single little painting
on the wall there.
My painting is called “dos pyrami
dos” because there are four pyramids
in the installation and I am trying to
work with the same train of thought
as Ásmundur, mixing the two-dimen-
sional and the three-dimensional. It
was a lot of fun getting to work within
the context of Ásmundarsafn and the
works on display there, it was a little
bit like sharing a conversation with Ás-
mundur.
And your forthcoming show at Haf-
narborg?
The show is divided in two. In the first
hall, I am working with prints of my
paintings, or a specific pattern that ap-
peared in one of my works. The inner
hall features little clusters of paintings
that are unusually shaped. We’ll see if
that works.
In the paintings, I am trying out
new things, even though the methods
may look familiar to some. The idea
is to simplify the works, so that the
spectator may clearly discern the first
stroke, so the idea is transparent. I am
also publishing a book of my works
that’s called Ofhlæði/Overload and
will be out on the Ok bæ(!)kur imprint.
Do you have a studio for painting? Do
you think it’s important to have one?
Yes, I’ve got a really nice studio. It’s
downtown and serves me really well.
It’s totally imperative for my creation
to have a workshop. I’ve got so many
materials; paint, wood, my books and
music. It’s like a home away from
home. Or as I called it when I lived
there: STUDIOHOUSEAPPARTMENT.
When will Iceland’s economy start re-
covering? Why?
It will, if we take up different values
and attitudes. It became evident that
endless greed did not work out. We
have one of the best social welfare
systems in the world, so we shouldn’t
complain, just keep our calm and we’ll
sail through this.
That doesn’t mean that all is for-
given, I want to see some people pun-
ished for their actions. And the arro-
gance of some of the politicians that
got us here is embarrassing. This time
around, Icelanders should not forget
so easily. That’s what seems to plague
us, we’re always so quick to fucking
forget.
What kind of music do you listen to?
In music, I am a total novelty whore,
that is, I like to follow what’s going on
and take in new things constantly. So I
try and read up on what’s going on and
buy a lot of music, I don’t really know
how to download. I have a big record
collection that is very important to
me, I always listen to my music when
I work and I am certain that it is a big
part of my creative process.
Davíð Örn Halldórsson’s exhibit of
paintings and installations, Hvar er
klukkan?, opens in Hafnarborg, Haf-
narfjörður, on November 7.
Artist Vs. Artist
Egill Sæbjörnsson meets Davíð Örn Halldórsson
HAukuR S MAGnúSSOn
JuLIA STApLES