Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Page 53

Elding Whale Watching
Take part in an adventure at sea with an unforgettable
trip into the world of whales and sea birds.
Free entry to the Whale Watching Centre
· EL-04 Sea Angling 1 May - 30 September at 11:00
· EL-05 Puffin Tour 15 May - 15 August at 9:30 and 15:00
· EL-07 Ferry to Viðey all year round
elding.is
Call us +354 555 3565
or visit www.elding.is
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46
31
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from Reykjavik
all year round
Tour Operator
Authorised by
Icelandic Tourist Board
Environmental Award
Icelandic Tourist Board
Make sureit’s Elding!
*10:00 and 14:00 departures from 1 July to 10 August.
**20:30 Midnight Whale Watching from 15 June to 31 July
Jan-Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct-Dec
9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00
10:00* 10:00*
13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00
14:00* 14:00*
17:00 17:00 17:00
20:30** 20:30**
Elding Whale Watching schedule – all year round
EL-01 / EL-02 / EL-03
Reykjavik
Art Museum
Flókagata
Open daily
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
artmuseum@reykjavik.is
Sigtún
Open 1 May – 30 Sept
daily 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
T +354 590 1200
Tryggvagata 17
Open daily
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thursdays 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
www.artmuseum.is
Hafnarhús Kjarvalsstaðir Ásmundarsafn
3 May 2010 – 15 January 2012
Kjarval – Key Works
7 May – 21 August
Jór! Horses in Icelandic Art
7 May – 21 August
Colours of the Horse
18 Sept. 2010 – 21 August 2011
Erró – Collage
21 May – 4 September
Perspectives – On the Borders of
Art and Philosophy
21 May – 24 July
Tomi Ungerer – Drawings
and Posters
28 July – 28 August
Erró – Assemblage
30 April 2011 – 15 April 2012
From Sketch to Sculpture –
Drawings by Ásmundur Sveinsson
30 April 2011 – 15 April 2012
Magnús Árnason – Homage
Tomi Ungerer –
Drawings and Posters
Magnús Árnason –
Homage
From Sketch to
Sculpture – Drawings
by Ásmundur Sveinsson
Erró -
Collage
Jór! Horses in Icelandic Art
Perspectives – On the Borders
of Art and Philosophy.
Claudio Parmiggiani,
Untitled, 2008.
The clever concepts worked better, but
none of the pieces was substantial,
perhaps an impossibility with this for-
mat. The only piece with any narrative
momentum was Steinunn’s ‘Galdur’. The
music for that piece, by Hildigunnur
Rúnarsdóttir, also stood out—the sole
composition, I think, without an elec-
tronic element. (The remaining music
was by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Ólöf Ar-
nalds, Þórarinn Guðnason, Áskell Más-
son and Daníel Bjarnason.)
IMPORTED PRESENTATIONS
Beijing Dance Theatre showed ‘Haze’,
a piece inspired by economic and en-
vironmental crises, circa 2008. Choreo-
graphed by Wang Yuanyuan and set
to music by Henryk Górecki and Bio-
sphere, the work was performed on a
stage-sized mattress thick and spongy
enough to allow the dancers to fall flat
on their backs and spring back up again.
This was in pursuit of a metaphor: the
dancers’ difficulty in getting their foot-
ing on the soft surface was supposed
to mimic the struggle of finding one’s
way in uncertain times. In practice, the
effect was more prosaic—a severe limi-
tation of movement options. Delicate
or quick steps were impossible, and a
single phrase—striking an exaggerated
arabesque, then falling over and rolling
on the mattress—was performed repeat-
edly.
The lighting of the piece was also meant
to convey something about economic/
environmental problems. But the stage
elements failed to merge with the danc-
ing which, except for a few mime se-
quences, was made up of generic, re-
petitive steps with little relation to the
piece’s ostensible subject. The burden
of giving the unremarkable movement
“meaning” fell to the young, earnest,
slightly-raw performers—who did man-
age to convey a certain generalized
angst.
The second imported work, Les SlovaKs’
‘Opening Night’, featured five dancers
(Martin Kilvady, Milan Herich, Milan To-
masik, Peter Jasko and Anton Lachky)
and a musician (Simon Thierry) from the
Balkan countries. To music supplied by
the violinist/electronic technician, the
dancers did moves from street dance,
various modern idioms and traditional
Slavic dance, demonstrating their ex-
treme proficiency at all. But the piece
was bland: the performers joked around
with each other and the audience, but
never really let go of themselves, genu-
inely interacted or did anything surpris-
ing.
Results from the series, then, were
mixed. There were two exceptional
dance-theatre works, but no arresting
work from younger artists, and no good
examples of works that spoke primarily
through movement. Perhaps the Arts
Festival isn’t the place to see younger
artists, but a project like ‘Six Pairs’ would
be more exciting if it managed to get at
least a few fresh faces involved. With
so little imported work shown in Ice-
land—the two works described here are
a substantial fraction of the foreign work
that will be shown here this year—more
care needs to be taken in choosing it.
Adventurous dance of many types is
flourishing in continental Europe right
now—shouldn’t we be able to see some
of it? Alongside, of course, the best
home-grown stuff.
Dance At The Arts Festival
STACEY STEINBERG