Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2012, Side 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2012
Iceland | Growth
Hjartagarðurinn is located between Laugavegur and Hverfisgata.
It's hard to miss.
Music pounds from a hand-
made, wooden DJ booth, friends
congregate on a set of vibrantly
painted picnic tables and lo-
cal artists fry up Icelandic pylsa
on a small, stone grill. Tibetan
prayer flags flap quietly amongst
tree branches and skateboard-
ers carve across a selection of
hand-poured cement obstacles
that they helped design.
Located in an abandoned square be-
tween Laugavegur and Hverfisgata,
Hjartagarðurinn (“Heart Park”) is one
of Reykjavík’s most colourful and cul-
turally appealing areas. It is a commu-
nal space with a large brick heart, built
right into the ground, and is surrounded
on all sides by massive graffiti murals,
colourfully masking the plaza’s austere,
grey walls.
But it wasn ’t always such a nice
place. As the square is privately owned
by a subsidiary of the facilities manage-
ment company Reginn, the city is not
responsible for its upkeep. Enter Tómas
Magnússon, Tanya Pollock, and Örn
Tönsberg—three people who took it
upon themselves to revive and renovate
the park. “We saw the potential, and we
wanted to be here with our kids, but it
was totally trashed,” Tanya told us over
the summer.
“People referred to it as the ‘crack
park,’ because of some of the things
we’d find during our clean-ups. The only
thing that kept the place from looking
like a total hellhole was the graffiti. Citi-
zens and tourists still came by in droves
to enjoy the artwork. Everyone wanted to
be there because of the art, the location
and the sun, but it was hard to be there
with our children due to the filth, and
broken glass in every step. Something
had to be done.”
Last summer they began their clean-
up to transform the rundown lot into
a community park, and slowly, Hjar-
tagarðurinn was born. However, just
as renovation nears completion, the
square—along with a large part of Reyk-
javík’s cultural scene—faces demolition.
Plans for yet another hotel
As tourism continues to grow in the 101
area, so does the need for hotels and
space to plant those hotels. Thus, Reykja-
vík’s City Planning Committee recently
introduced a proposal that would get rid
of Hjartagarðurinn and its surrounding
buildings to make way for the construc-
tion of a new hotel under the direction of
the architecture firm, Arkitektur.
“We had a vision and plan for the
garden based on what the community
wanted to see and we tried to materialise
this,” Tanya says. “The owners gave us
permission, as did the city. We were also
told that any future plans for the area
would be discussed with the communi-
ty—that we could present our visions for
the place, and that it would be taken into
consideration. But they didn’t do that.
Their current plan doesn’t coincide with
what the community wants and needs.
They should have invited us to those
meetings.”
These places will be missed
One of the allures of Hjartagarðurinn is
the small cement skatepark, which was
constructed this past summer, and will
likely be destroyed if the city’s current
plan passes. “The skatepark was one of
our first visions for the place because
there is no free, outdoor skate park in
the city,” Tanya says. “Initially, the ho-
tel adjoining the garden told us that
we would not be allowed to have it. But
when the hotel owner noticed how won-
derful Hjartagarðurinn had become,
he gave us his blessing to build a small
skatepark.”
Local rider Daníel Freyr Elíasson
tells me adamantly, “Hjartagarðurinn
is a place where everyone, regardless of
their age or gender, can come together
to cultivate their art, totally free of judg-
ment. I am shocked that our city would
let this happen.”
Unfortunately, Hjartagarðurinn is
not the only spot threatened by this pro-
posal, but also the surrounding build-
ings; the bar and venue Faktorý, on
Smiðjustígur, is among these likely to be
demolished. This comes as a shock, and
an extremely hard hit to the city’s musi-
cians—especially following the closing
of one of Reykjavík’s largest venues,
NASA, earlier this year.
“After we lost NASA, Reykjavík’s
musical community sees Faktorý as sort
of a ‘last stand,’” Agent Fresco drummer
Hrafnkell Örn Guðjónsson says. “If we
keep losing these large venues, soon
there will be nothing left for us.” Prolific
rapper Emmsjé Gauti adds, “Everyone
talks about just moving everything into
Harpa, but the acoustics are really ter-
rible if you’re a rock band. It’s basically
impossible to get a good mix. It was built
with an orchestra in mind.”
Iceland Airwaves, the country’s larg-
est musical event, and a main attraction
for tourists in October and November,
continues to grow larger every year.
Tickets sold out in record time this year,
and nearly every hotel in 101 was com-
pletely booked months in advance. The
venue at Faktorý is repeatedly used each
year by Airwaves to showcase the coun-
try’s best and brightest.
“I fear that someday, Icelanders will
grow to hate all those tourists for facilitat-
ing the need to destroy their alternative
culture sites—and Faktorý is definitely
one of those,” German photographer
and Airwaves veteran Florian Trykowski
says. “As a tourist, I don’t need another
huge, modern building built downtown.
Nothing against Harpa, but I truly hope
the organisers of Airwaves aren’t plan-
ning on moving the festival exclusively
into Harpa. Reykjavík is on its way to los-
ing some of the rough, scratchy edges I
love so much.”
We should have a say
Tanya, Tómas and Örn are currently
in the process of negotiating with the
Reykjavík City Council in hopes of find-
ing common ground. “We want them to
back up a bit on the construction in the
area, leaving alone the businesses that
are well alone. There is no logic in tear-
ing down Faktorý; the house is in good
condition and it’s booming with music
and life,” Tayna says. “Since our govern-
ment wants to construct buildings for
private owners to buy and make their
businesses, perhaps the government
can support us by buying one house for
a grassroots cultural centre. There can
be a coffee house and gallery, a place for
concerts, possibly an indoor market, de-
signer store, and so on. I would rather
see a hostel there than one more hotel.”
Travellers come to see Iceland, meet
Icelanders, and experience Icelandic
culture. Hjartagarðurinn is the em-
bodiment of this, as there are few other
places in the city that are as frequently
visited by citizens and repeatedly photo-
graphed by tourists. It is the most active
public park in Reykjavík because people
are inspired to let the arts bloom. “Peo-
ple need to remember that we are paying
the government salary—they work for
us,” Tanya concludes. “We want NASA,
Faktorý and the Hjartagarðurinn—and
even though the area is privately owned,
the government should help us work
with the owners to find a mutual agree-
ment.”
Unlike the petitions to save NASA,
which despite good intentions were far
too little and much too late, this chorus
of disapproval is shared by artists, musi-
cians, and tourists alike. “It's rare for a
city to give that amount of surface area
to urban art of different styles and me-
diums, and the city will lose a piece of
its character if it’s replaced with more
typical tourist fare,” says Jeff Obermey-
er, a Washington State resident, who
visits Iceland and attends the annual
Airwaves music festival regularly. “Ice-
land's tourism succeeds in part because
of the conscious effort people make to go
there and experience the small things.”
Hjartagarðurinn is an example of pri-
vately owned land being allocated as pri-
vate parties see fit.
However, companies like Reginn
(which is also a part of Landsbankinn,
one of the three major commercial
banks to collapse at the start of Iceland’s
economic recession in 2008) are only
ever private until they need the public to
bail them out. “We shouldn’t only have
a say in things once it's time to foot the
bill,” says food critic Ragnar Egilsson.
“This is our capital, our skyline, our
nightlife, and our culture. We should all
have a say in it.”
“
Hjartagarðurinn is a
place where everyone,
regardless of their age or
gender, can come together
to cultivate their art,
totally free of judgment. I
am shocked that our city
would let this happen.„
Where Has The Love Gone? The proposed destruction
of Hjartagarðurinn & Faktorý, and why Reykjavík risks
becoming the cookie-cutter capital of the North
Words and photos by Bowen Staines
Not So Fast!
Project Manager Hannes Frímann
Sigurðsson says it’s not so simple
By Thomas L. Moir
Laugavegsreitir’s Project Manager
Hannes Frímann Sigurðsson paints a
slightly different picture.
Hannes does not deny that they’re
going through with plans to develop
the area which Hjartagarðurinn is part
of, but he says that Laugavegsreitir, the
subsidiary of the company which owns
Hjartagarðurinn, did not break any
promises made to Tómas Magnússon,
Tanya Pollock and Örn Tönsberg.
He says it was made clear to the
trio from the onset that their use of
Hjartagarðurinn was a temporary ar-
rangement.
“They’re saying now that they didn’t
know, but it was crystal clear from the
beginning that it would be only this
summer,” Hannes emphasises. “The
only thing that I said to them, repeat-
edly, was don’t do too much because
eventually, either this fall or this spring,
we’d have to take it away.”
Furthermore, Hannes says he
doesn’t recall agreeing to discuss
changes before taking action. “That
was definitely not our statement. And
there was no one else capable of mak-
ing any promises,” Hannes says of the
claims.
Hannes says the City came up with
the idea to hand Hjartagarðurinn over
to the community in the first place and
he is actually complimentary of what
has been achieved in this space. “What
they’ve shown is that they’re capable of
taking on an area like this in Reykjavík,
and there are many of them.”
The project manager believes that
what Tómas, Tanya and Örn have
achieved has opened the eyes of the
Reykjavík City Council to the benefits
of handing such spaces over to the
community. “I told Tanya that I thought
they had proved that they are capable
of taking a large area like this on,
and if The Council would give them
another spot like this, they could make
the place as beautiful as they made
Hjartagarðurinn,” he says.
Now the agenda is, according to
Hannes, to make a new square for
similar purposes. “It’ll be a public
park and every individual can use the
square for his own purposes. I’m not
sure if they can spray paint the walls,
but the hope is that they can use it for
music, theatre, whatever they like,” he
assures.
Hannes believes the new square
will be an improvement on Hjart-
agarðurinn as it’ll appeal to a wider
cross-section of the community. “Not
everyone in Reykjavík likes Hjart-
agarðurinn,” he says.
“It’s a common misunderstanding
I think. A lot of people who contact us
say what’s happening there has to end.
But we are not opinion makers. We
don’t take sides.”
Hannes says nothing has been
confirmed as to exactly how the space
will be developed. Laugavegsreitir have
been in contact with several different
parties, including a hotel, about the
space, but nothing is set in stone. “It’s
going to be beautiful in its own way,”
he concludes of the upcoming devel-
opment.