Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Blaðsíða 60

Wednesday
09/03
16:00 SEB Animals
GK Reykjavík, Skólavörðustíg 6
16:00 Primitiva – Talismans
Culture House, Hverfisgötu 15
16:00 Ceramics Design on Stamps
Culture House, Hverfisgötu 15
16:00 Inner garden - human interior
Culture House, Hverfisgötu 15
16:00 Translations
Culture House, Hverfisgötu 15
17:00 Sound Of Iceland
Bergstaðastræti 10 A
17:00 High tide
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 Spot, Spot 2 & Spor
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 Mirroring Moments
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 The City and the Forest
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 Predictable Civil Disobedience
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 Subject
Lækningaminjasafnið, Seltjarnarnesi
17:00 Chemical Compound
Aurum, Bankastræti 4
17:00 The Way Home
Aurum, Bankastræti 4
17:00 Nanook „better see eyes than an eye
Aurum, Bankastræti 4
17:00 Endless Colours of Icelandic Design
Epal, Skeifunni 6
17:00 WAVES: inspired by Iceland
Epal, Skeifunni 6
17:00 Recess - Priests
Gallerí Grótta, Eiðistorgi 11, 2. hæð
17:00 Your place Our town
Hafnarborg, Strandgötu 34 Hafnafj.
17:00 Triad
Museum Of Design And Applied Art,
Garðatorgi 1
18:00 Still
Hverfisgötu 71A
18:00 AURUM works with Walk Together
Aurum, Bankastræti 4
18:00 By hand
Snúran, Síðumúla 21
19:00 Connecting Iceland
Nordic house, Sturlugötu 5
19:30 FÍT Awards 2016 – Graphic design
in Iceland
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
19:30 The Art of Graphic Storytelling
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
19:30 Places of Origin. Polish Graphic
Design in Context.
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
19:30 Wights - Supernatural spirits
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
19:30 Mæna
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
19:30 Transition
Ocean Cluster House,
Grandagarði 16
20:00 No. 10
Hlemmur Square, Laugavegi 105
20:00 1+1+1
Spark, Klapparstíg 33
Thursday
10/03
9:00 DesignTalks
Harpa
15:00 Silver, Gold and Icelandic Stone
Anna María Design, Skólavörðustíg 3
16:00 Hlín Reykdal
Fiskislóð 75
16:00 Dulkápan party
Núllið, Bankastræti 0
17:00 Ceramics in Kokka
Kokka, Laugavegi 47
17:00 Helga Ósk
Erling Gullsmiður Aðalstræti 10
17:00 Ró
Klapparstíg 11
17:00 Willow Project
Reykjavik Maritime museum,
Hornsílið, Grandagarði 8
17.30 GREYKJAVÍK
NORR11, Hverfisgötu 18a
17:30 DesignMarch 2016 opening
ceremony
Reykjavik Art Museum,
Tryggvagötu 14
17:30 RE 7
Reykjavik Art Museum,
Tryggvagötu 14
17:30 Icelandic furniture and design
Reykjavik Art Museum,
Tryggvagötu 14
17:30 Industrial
Reykjavik Art Museum,
Tryggvagötu 14
18:00 KRAUM
Aðalstræti 10
18:00 The Collective Conscience
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 Hidden Wood, continuation
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 North Limited
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 Saana ja Olli
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 Vein of Life
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 Saga Kakala introduces Goddesses
Hannesarholti, Grundarstíg 10
18:00 Collections
Stöðlakot, Bókhlöðustíg 6
18:00 Or Type Reading Room + Video
Hailstorm (VHS)
Mengi, Óðinsgötu 2
18:00 Silfra
Geysir, Skólavörðustíg 7
18:00 Sturla Aqua
Húrra Reykjavík, Hverfisgötu 50
18:00 Weather: Part I
Kirsuberjatréð, Vesturgötu 4
18:00 Weaving DNA, Hiding Colour
Hverfisgallerí, Hverfisgötu 4
19:00 15/15
Steinunn Studio, Grandagarði 17
19:00 EldhúsMars
Hrím Eldhús, Laugavegi 32
20:00 Memorines
Fóa, Laugavegi 2
21:00 Showroom Reykjavík A/W 2016/17
Reykjavik City Hall
Friday
11/03
9:30 Sustainordic
Loft Hostel, Bankastræti 7
16:00 Handled II black red white
„Skörin“, Handverk og hönnun,
Aðalstræti 10
17:00 Further North Opið hús / Showroom
Baldursgata 30
17:00 5 plus 4
Kaolin Keramik Gallerí,
Skólavörðustíg 22
17:00 Kids dig playgrounds
Kjarvalsstaðir
17:00 OR Type x 66°NORTH
Skólavörðustígur 12
17:00 The role of the whole
Grýtan, Keilugranda 1, 1. hæð
17:30 Demba
Gotta, Laugavegi 7
17:30 SO.NOT.ENOUGH
38 þrep, Laugavegi 49
18:00 Geislar / Ode to Light
Geislar hönnunarhús ehf., Bolholt 4
18:00 CATACOMB - ORRIFINN JEWELS
Skólavörðustíg 17A
18:00 From different directions
Syrusson Hönnunarhús, Síðumúli 33
20:00 Dulkápan, performance night
Loft Hostel, Bankastræti 7
20:00 Farmers Market
Farmers & Friends, Hólmaslóð 2
Saturday
12/03
12:00 Hand Lettering Your Message and
Printing away
LetterPress, Lindargötu 50
14:00 Let’s sketch together
Arion Banki, Borgartúni 19
14:00 Conference on Exhibit Design
National museum of Iceland
14:00 Synodic Tropic
Eiðistorg
17:00 Dulkápan, cozy night and poetry
reading
Stofan Kaffihús, Vesturgötu 3
17:00 Photo Exhibition and Design Bingo
at Kiosk
Kiosk, Laugavegi 65
19:30 MAGNEA AW16 PRESENTATION
Dance Atelier by Skúlagata, en-
trance on Hverfisgata
Sunday
13/03
13:00 Screening of the documentary film
Falinn skógur
Hljóðberg auditorium, Hannesarholt
14:00 Letterings
Mokka-Kaffi, Skólavörðustígur 3a
Openings
& Events
Make, Do And
Mend: The As-
semble group
employ their
design skills
to make the
world better
by John Rogers
In a world where open-ended, collab-
orative and cross-disciplinary cre-
ative practise is throwing up all kinds
of new possibilities, the work of the
Assemble group seems completely in
tune with the moment.
This eighteen-strong London-
based collective started almost ac-
cidentally, when a group of under-
employed architects and designers
decided to put their skills to use in
an eye-catching series of urban inter-
ventions, such as placing a makeshift
cinema on the forecourt of a disused
petrol station, or building a tempo-
rary house under a motorway flyover.
Such works highlight the potential of
derelict urban spaces, reviving un-
likely locations as memorable, thriv-
ing social spaces.
Despite the grand results, Maria
Lisogorskaya, who’ll be speaking at
the DesignTalks this month, remains
humble. “It all started very organi-
cally,” she recalls. “We didn’t start
out to set up a collective—we just did
a few projects together. It was started
as an amateur thing. We took holi-
days or did it in our free time. We had
other jobs.”
Working with people
In the five years since then, Assem-
ble has become an in-demand studio
that carries out all sorts of projects,
such as helping to regenerate a strug-
gling Liverpool community through
creative endeavour. This involved
giving the neighbourhood a physical
facelift, whilst passing on valuable
skills to locals.
“We’re interested in the social,
and the public,” explains Maria.
“We like working with people, and
learning from them. In our Liverpool
project, we worked with a commu-
nity that’s been active in the area for
20 years. We were trying to use the
skills we’ve learned as designers to
collaborate with them.”
This interest in hands-on collabo-
ration and “making themselves use-
ful” has led Assemble to take design
out of the studio not in the form of
a pristine object, but as a living pro-
cess. There’s something refreshingly
unpretentious about how they do it.
“Design includes a lot of planning,
and thinking things through,” says
Maria. “It’s a word that’s used a lot,
but the process itself been around for
centuries. It’s a way to make things
more efficient and desirable, and to
try and improve things.”
Use what you have
Much to their own surprise, As-
semble were nominated for, and ulti-
mately won, the 2015 Turner Prize—
a prestigious televised art award
in the UK. But while much live art
is about performance—or, often, a
performative inclusion of the audi-
ence—Assemble don’t perform at all.
The group engages in a genuine col-
laboration with active participants,
engaging people in something fun,
functional, and with a tangible out-
come.
“Problem solving is something
we’re interested in,” says Maria, “and
each project certainly has its own
problems. It’s not always just about
making a spectacular experience for
people to enjoy—sometimes it’s also
about giving certain people a voice
who don’t have one, or helping on
something very specific. Something
we’re interested in how you can use
what’s already there as a resource.
What we do is very different from
project to project.”
I wonder if “making things bet-
ter” is a kind of informal guiding
principle for the group’s activities.
“As designers you’re taught to fix
things, to improve things, and to
make new things,” says Maria, “and
the scale at which this can be done
can really vary.”
Just do something
G ++oing into a situation in which the
outcome is not yet determined shows
a willingness to view design as a liv-
ing, participatory, free-flowing pro-
cess, and has led to some unexpected
results—not least, the transformation
of Assemble from an ambitious hobby
into a full-time job.
“The fact that we’re here as a
company is an unexpected result
of our first project,” smiles Maria.
“It was something fun. We did it to
make ourselves just do something,
and to enjoy doing it. The fact that
we’re now a company is a massive
surprise.”
The group gravitates towards so-
cially minded projects, but Maria is
tentative when asked about whether
Assemble’s social practise reads as a
form of creative activism. “Activism
is quite a loaded word,” she says. “We
don’t have a shared political view.
But there is an element of self-initi-
ation, and of challenging briefs. And
we definitely try to make things bet-
ter.”