Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Síða 28

Bringing
Art To
Life
NÝLÓ captures Iceland’s mercurial DIY art scene
Words: John Rogers Photos: Julie Rowland
It’s often noted that Iceland has a
vibrant and thriving arts culture
for a country of 330,000 people.
In music, literature and visual
art, Iceland punches far above its
weight, producing an impressive
amount of world-class artists, in
various disciplines. But the road
between an artist’s graduation
and their “major retrospective”
is often decades long, and muse-
ums are scarce by comparison.
The end result of this equation is
a wealth of artist-led initiatives,
collectives, and independent gal-
lery spaces that have come into
being over a period of decades,
and played an essential role in the
country’s cultural conversation.
NÝLÓ is an abbreviation of
Nýlistasafnið, or “The Living
Art Museum”—it’s an organisa-
tion dedicated
t o c apt u r i n g
and archiving
t h e s e o f t e n
mercurial mo-
m e n t s a n d
m o v e m e n t s .
It’s an apt title:
in addition to
their vast ar-
ch ive of per-
formance art
in Iceland, vid-
eo art, and art-
ist-led initia-
tives, NÝLÓ is
also a vibrant
hub for active
artists. In ad-
dition to devel-
oping their ar-
chive, NÝLÓ runs two exhibition
spaces—one in Breiðholt, and
one in the Marshall House—with
a lively year-round programme of
exhibitions, screenings, perfor-
mances, and events.
“There’s always something
going on,” says Þorgerður Ólafs-
dóttir, the museum director, as
she shows us around the recently
opened Marshall House exhibi-
tion space. “We’ve had this cur-
rent retrospective in our minds
for a really long time. It’s by Ólafur
Lárusson, one of the founders of
the museum. He went unnoticed
for at least two generations of art-
ists. When I was in school he was
never talked about, but then when
Ragnar Kjartansson was here, he
said: ‘It’s amazing that you’re do-
ing a show about Oli Legend!’”
Frustration outlet
NÝLÓ was founded in 1978, and
has occupied an interesting po-
sition ever since. On
one hand, it performs
an institutional role,
preserving and ar-
chiving delicate and
ephemeral works; on
the other, it ’s com-
pletely independent,
running as an NGO
with a board elected
from its 380-strong
membership of art-
ists, experts and en-
thusiasts.
It ’s a u n ique
organisation,” says
Þ orgerð u r. “It ’s a
ju x t aposit ion, be-
cause it ’s from the
g ra ssro ot s s c ene,
but it ’s a museum.
It’s always been artist-run, and
collected contemporary art that
was being lost or discarded. At
the time it opened, the National
Gallery wasn’t collecting new
art, and artists were frustrated.”
Þorgerður notes my surprise
that this role has been taken up by
artists, rather than the state. “In
the first twenty years, NÝLÓ was
run by volunteer work,” she says.
“Then, when more money came
through, it started to turn into
more of an operation. We never
talk about it as being an ‘institu-
tion’—or ‘stofnun,’ in Icelandic—
because it’s such a formal word.”
Nomadic collection
NÝLÓ has inhabited several spac-
es since the museum’s inception.
“It first arose from the SÚM move-
ment, which started in 1965,” says
Þorgerður. “Hreinn Friðfinnsson
was one of the founders, and Jón
Gunnar Árnason—he’s mostly
known for the ‘Sun Voyager’ on
Sæbraut, but he did so many other
works. At first, it was in Ólafur
Lárusson’s studio, then it moved
to the old SÚM gallery space.”
In 2014, NÝLÓ was chased out
of the downtown area by the dif-
ficult rental market, and relocated
to Breiðholt. “Many artists who
live in Reykjavík 101 thought it was
a drastic step,” says Þorgerður.
“But when the first exhibitions
went up, and people realised NÝLÓ
was still NÝLÓ, just in Breiðholt,
they were calm about it. We have
an exhibition of books there now
called ‘Read Through’. NÝLÓ has
over 800 bookworks.”
Fragile medium
Short-run bookworks are another
fragile medium that is easily dis-
persed and forgotten, bringing
their collection and preservation
into NÝLÓ’s remit. “From the be-
ginning, NÝLÓ had an emphasis
on collecting work that was being
lost or discarded,” explains Þorg-
erður, “so there’s always been a
focus on performance and book-
works. It was ten years ago when
the board decided to fully investi-
gate that part of the museum’s his-
tory and started to formally create
these archives—performance art,
and artist-run initiatives.”
Culture Feature
“In the first
twenty years,
NÝLÓ was run
by volunteer
work. We
never talk
about it as
being an
‘institution.’”
“It’s interesting how art history
is written. It’s usually just by a
few people. That’s one role of
NÝLÓ, to make sure the history
stays true.”