Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2016, Qupperneq 38

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Reykjavík Arts Festival
38
One of the most intriguing events in
the 2016 Reykjavík Arts Festival pro-
gramme is an interactive performance
by the Wunderland group. Entitled
“Phoenix,” the event is the third of its
kind, and promises an immersive ex-
perience as participants take a guided
walk along Reykjavík’s harbour, en-
countering performers and specially
created environments. We caught up
with Gunnar and Mette, two of the peo-
ple behind the event, to find out more.
Phoenix seems like an interesting
cross-breed of interactive experience,
theatre, installation and performance.
How does it touch on these different
areas?
Phoenix plays with all your senses.
Each guest goes through their own
personal adventure, alone, meeting
and interacting with performers in
some places, and listening to sounds
and words in others. They wander
through an urban landscape of desert-
ed cars, boats, a tent and a structure
made of things found at the harbour.
You could call it an interactive, sen-
sory performance; but you could call it
a concert walk, poetry walk or a living
installation, too.
Reykjavík, and Iceland generally, are
quite immersive environments. Does
it help to have this kind of canvas on
which to create a piece like this?
Definitely. Phoenix adapts to its sur-
rounding and changes accordingly. So
the nature and the location of Snarfar-
ahöfn harbour—the urban landscape,
the boat community, the industrial
background and impressive view to the
mountains all shaped the performance.
Do you train your mind to notice things
differently when designing such a piece?
Yes, I would say so. Phoenix is made by
artists working in the Denmark-based
performing arts initiator, Wunder-
land. It was founded by Mette Aakjær,
who has a background in physical the-
atre and dance. Mette shaped the basic
idea and concept for the performance,
and from that foundation, the art-
work is shaped by a collective process.
All the artists invited are trained to
heighten their awareness of reality—
many have movement training, and all
have a very sensory approach.
What are some of the memorable
sensory experiences that became key
to this edition of Phoenix?
Speaking for just a few of us, key sen-
sory experiences were: the sound of the
birds and the long, dry grass, blending
with the sound of the machines of the
industrial harbour and the wind from
the mountains. The boats on land,
looking like they’re floating over the
ground, or perhaps longing for the sea.
The strong sense of a community.
How many people will be able to pass
through this work in the time it's in
Reykjavík?
If all time slots are filled, there are
about 300 that can take the journey.
People enter one at a time, every eight
minutes, and each individual journey
is around 90 minutes.
Do you have a message for someone
who might be considering signing up to
experience Phoenix?
During the past three editions, the
guests have spread the word to their
friends, until the last days have always
been sold out. So our best advice is to
book early.
Book your spot at midi.is.
The Known Unknown
Wunderland invite you to step into
a strange but familiar world.
Words by JOHN ROGERS
Gerður Kristný Guðjónsdóttir, usually
known more simply as Gerður Kristný,
is one of Iceland’s most notable poets,
well-known both at home and abroad.
She represented Iceland at the Poetry
Olympics in London in 2012 and was
selected as writer-in-residence at the
International Writing Program at the
University of Iowa.
Although she has authored nine-
teen books of poetry, fiction, and
children’s writing, she is perhaps
best known as a poet due to her 2010
book ‘Blóðhófnir’. It won the Icelan-
dic Literary Prize, was nominated for
the Nordic Literature Prize, and was
published in English as ‘Bloodhoof’
in 2012 by Old Norse scholar and Ice-
landic translator Rory McTurk. If only
one poet was being included as a major
part in the Reykjavík Arts Festival, it’s
no surprise that it should be her.
The giantess speaks
Umbra Ensemble will debut a perfor-
mance adapted from ‘Bloodhoof’ at the
Reykjavík Arts Festival, with music
composed by Kristín Þóra Haraldsdót-
tir and movement choreographed by
Saga Sigurðardóttir. The poem is a re-
evaluation of an Old Norse poem from
the Edda, in which the giantess (and
author’s namesake) Gerður is abduct-
ed and forced to marry the god Freyr.
The original poem, “Skírnismál,” is
framed around the journey of the ser-
vant who fetches the woman, while
this contemporary retelling is from
Gerður’s perspective.
Because the stanzas in the original
Eddic poems are divided into speaking
parts between the characters, some
medieval scholars believe they were
originally performed dramatically
rather than simply read aloud. This
creates an interesting precedent for
this new staging. In one sense, it will
be the newest edition in a sequence of
creative reinterpretations of the origi-
nal poem, but in another sense it will
be closer to its original form than the
preserved “Skírnismál” itself.
Poetic Olympians
If you’d like your kids to have a shot at
the Poetry Olympics or the Iowa Writ-
ers Workshop, you’re in luck. Gerður
will be conducting two creative writ-
ing workshops for kids ages 9-14, cen-
tered around ‘The Weather Diaries’,
the current art installation by Cooper
& Gorfer at the Nordic House. The ex-
hibit itself is also a reimagining of the
shared culture and geography of Ice-
land, Greenland, and the Faroes. This
hypnotic and fantastical atmosphere,
and its emphasis on reimagining, is
the creative jumping-off point for the
children’s writing.
Register your little ones for the work-
shops on the 28th and 29th of May on
the Nordic House's website. And don’t
miss the only performance of ‘Bloodhoof’
on June 1st—tickets are still available
through Midi.is.
Giants And
Children
Gerður Kristný at the
Reykjavík Arts Festival
Words by GRAYSON DEL FARO