Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2011, Qupperneq 21

21
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2011

Preserving quality
is our business
Open daily for lunch and dinners
Special off er on Monday
and Tuesday – 3 course dinner
for only 4200 ISK.
Reservation: tel. 552 5700,
e-mail: gallery@holt.is
Bergstaðastræti 37 s. 552 5700
holt@holt.is www.holt.is
Elegant surroundings
Superb cuisine
Modern comfort
Vegetarian
Fish
Deserts
Cream of lobster soup
Garlic roasted lobster
Lobster & escargot “ragout”
Mushrooms, garlic
Whale “sashimi” dip sauce
Mushrooms, herbs, ginger, red beets
Lobster “maki”
Avocado, mango, cucumber, chilli mayo
Lobster salad
Rucola, pumpkin seeds, fruit chutney
Veggie steak
Red beets, potatoes, parsnip
Catch of the day
Please ask your waiter
Lobster grill
200 gr. lobster, horseradish,
salad
Chocolate “2 ways”
White and dark chocolade, fruits
“Lazy-daisy”
Coconut, yoghurt
Lunch
Humarhúsið
the
lobster
house
R E S T A U R A N T
AMTMANNSTÍGUR
BANKASTRÆTI
BÓKHLÖÐUSTÍGUR
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Located in City Center
Amtmannsstíg 1 · 101 Reykjavík · Tel: 561 3303
humarhusid@humarhusid.is
speak. Everything from the lighting to
the way it sits on the harbour front, the
things related to the outside... all these
discussions we’ve had... I don’t know
any examples of an artist and an archi-
tect team collaborating so closely.
When the project started I was cu-
rious to see if this was even possible,
and now, nearing the successful com-
pletion of it, I feel incredibly proud to
have worked with such a great team of
people on creating this dynamic proj-
ect. The coming together of all these
different individuals and ideas has
made the seemingly impossible pos-
sible.
THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
How is it working on such a
large-scale project with many
involved partners? Have you
had to make more compromises
than usual?
No. I think the people I have worked
with can verify that I have been very
insistent on making clear what is art
and what isn’t.
I believe there is no limit to what can
be considered important about a work
of art, and my team in Berlin is well
known for being—without it sounding
negative—obsessed with detail. It basi-
cally goes relentlessly into every detail
of any of our projects. Sometimes an
engineer or an architect will come up
with a better solution that also works
better artistically. What makes it a work
of art is not necessarily that I did it; it
is the outcome of a dialogue that ren-
ders the artistic idea stronger or bet-
ter, and I think it’s important to keep
an eye out for why you’re doing what
you’re doing. When you are obsessed,
you tend to focus on how things are
done. Very often the why and how go
hand in hand. Sometimes you’ll get so
obsessed with understanding the is-
sue that you forget why you’re doing
it in the first place, and I think working
on these large scale projects brings
out the artistic strength.
Tell me about some of the de-
tails that concerned you...
I looked a lot into the difference be-
tween the colour palette of the north
and south sides of the façade. The
coloured glass integrates different co-
lours from inside and outside, which
resemble colours you find when you
look at different types of light and min-
erals. They reference a sense of geol-
ogy.
I worked with glass specialists to
develop the right colour, and they of
course might have an opinion about
what looks good and what looks
wrong. I had to ensure their opinions
didn’t influence the course of the proj-
ect. The glassmaker will also have an
opinion and even the person that in-
stalls the glass. I have to make sure to
monitor every step of the process and
see that it comes to fruition in the way
it was envisioned.
A PARTICULAR ICELANDER
But I don’t do this alone. The design
team and the architects have been
very helpful, and my own team has
been working with me since the very
first stages in my studio. I would also
like to mention one Icelander in par-
ticular, who works in my studio, an art-
ist and architect called Einar Þorsteinn.
I think he has an exhibition opening in
Iceland soon, which I urge all to visit
[more on Einar Þorsteinn’s Hafnarborg
exhibit in our listings issue].
Einar has lived most of his life in
Iceland and he has an incredible mind
for experimental thinking; he is a won-
derful person. He has collaborated
with me on almost thirty different proj-
ects—our first project together was
back in 1996—always inserting a sort
of crystalline or arithmetic or math-
ematic parabola geometry. I know that
he’s returning to Iceland and expects
to spend more time working in Iceland
over the next years.
He and I developed the early stages
of the geometry from which the ‘quasi
bricks’ that make up the south façade
evolved. The bricks themselves are not,
as a matter of fact, meant to reflect the
Icelandic basalt columns as some have
speculated, but the idea of the intricate
language of mathematics. This polyhe-
dric form has relevance in the world,
and I have used it in a lot of differ-
ent projects. I’ve benefited a lot from
Einar’s insight in making shapes and
geometries. Making the bricks was a
very sophisticated process. By the time
the brick gets to Iceland, maybe fifty
different people have been involved
with thinking about it—how every an-
gle reacts to different shades of light,
strain, mechanics, etc. The very early
beginning stage involved Einar sitting
and thinking about mathematics, and
the last stage was a worker sitting in
a crane. And I follow every step of the
way.
Tell me more about Einar Þor-
steinn. What is his role in your
art?
Einar was a visionary when I met him
in Iceland during the mid nineties. He
lived and worked by Álafoss in Mos-
fellsbær, and had already done a lot
of different and impressive things by
then. At the time, I was very interested
in [the world renowned engineer/de-
signer/futurist] Buckminster Fuller and
was working with a couple of his ge-
ometries... I contacted Einar because
I was working on creating a sculpture
using Buckminster’s mathematical
system and somebody in Denmark
pointed out Einar, remarking that he,
unlike Buckminster, was alive and
working.
I went and met him and I found him
to be a visionary. Personally, I was a bit
surprised that Iceland had not further
embraced him and his work and in-
tegrated him into a bigger role. I later
learned that the entire class he studied
with in Stuttgart had gone on to be-
come professors or highly respected
professionals.
A few years later Einar married a
German woman and moved to Ger-
many. I immediately offered him a job
at my studio and this was the begin-
ning of a long relationship involving a
lot of projects. We worked on a book
together and are planning on making
another one that will revolve around
our collaborations.
A CONSTANT DIALOGUE
I am very interested in re-evaluating
the spatial systems in which we work
and the way we view architecture,
landscape and ourselves; in chang-
ing our perception of reality because
I think reality is highly constructed.
Einar has these ideas about different
types of reality—which he should really
be telling you about. He has an incred-
ible mind; fundamentally he has a lot
of confidence in the idea that there
are other ways of doing things. This is
such an important human quality, fos-
tering the idea that there must be an
alternative to how we do things. This
has become rare and this is why I think
Einar is truly unique. In most societies
people who work and think like that
are often marginalised, especially if
they are opinionated. If you think dif-
ferently from the masses, you have to
be an incredible diplomat; it is not an
easy route, especially in a place like
Iceland.
Einar is part of my core studio team,
where each person plays a different
role. I have been very explicit about the
part my studio plays as a workplace,
laboratory and haven for experimenta-
tion. My studio is not a place of isola-
tion, but very much involves a constant
dialogue with the team and with the
surroundings in Berlin.
Harpa: Key Facts and Stats:
Harpa’s name comes from the English in-
strument, the harp, and the name of the
month that marks the beginning of summer
in the Old Norse calendar.
Harpa has four main concert halls in-
spired by the elements fire, air, water, and
earth, which are called, respectively, El-
dborg (Fire Castle), Norðurljós (Northern
Lights), Silfurberg (Iceland spar, a rare
translucent calcite crystal), and Kaldalón
(Cold Lagoon). Eldborg is the grand con-
cert hall, and it seats 1.800 people.
With state of the art equipment and
spacious exhibition and reception areas,
conference facilities seat up to 1.600.
Harpa is home to the Iceland Sym-
phony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera.
It will serve as home base for Iceland Air-
waves 2011.
The building façade is designed by re-
nowned artist Ólafur Elíasson in collabora-
tion with Henning Larsen Architects. The
building is designed by Henning Larsen
Architects and Batteríið Architects, and
the acoustics are designed by Artec Con-
sultants Inc.
Construction commenced on Janu-
ary 12, 2007. During construction, 200.000
square metres of earth was cleared out
and 6 million tonnes of ocean water were
pumped from the building site
Size: 28.000 square metres
Height: 43 metres
Materials used:
30.000 cubic metres concrete
100 tonnes of glass
Cost:
27 billion ISK (includes cost of financing
over the next 35 years loans while the loans
are paid off)