Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.10.2017, Blaðsíða 27

Strange Times Ahead
Exploring time beyond the clocks at Sequences
Sequences Art Festival 2017
October 6-15, in various spaces
Set your alarm for Reykjavík’s own
independent biannual arts festival
Sequences, which opens for the eighth
time on Friday October 6. Launched in
2006 as an offshoot of the city’s vibrant
arts scene, this ten-day event will
present progressive visual art forms
with its signature focus on time-based
mediums such as performance, sonic
works, film and public intervention.
The curator of the festival is Mar-
got Norton. “I’m drawn to working on
projects that disrupt what is expected
and expand the definition of what an
art-viewing experience can be,” she
says. “Sequences festival was founded
to do just that, to embrace cutting-
edge visual art and provide a platform
for time-based mediums that are of-
ten overlooked such as video, perfor-
mance, and sound.”
The latest incarnation is entitled
‘Sequences VIII: Elastic Hours,’ and fo-
cuses on how the term “real time” can
be applied to the experience of mak-
ing art, exploring how artists can use
time itself as a raw material. Through
the works of 20 Icelandic and inter-
national artists, Sequences VIII looks
beyond the clock and investigates
alternative systems for measuring
time—perhaps especially pertinent to
Icelanders due to the country’s strange
and unusual daylight hours, which are
the most traditional timekeeper of all.
Through this work, the festival aims
to provide a heightened awareness of
our relationships with objects, society
and the universe itself.
Sequences is the first arts festival
in Iceland to focus solely on visual
art forms, and each edition brings
in a new creative director with a new
vision, to keep things fresh and tick-
ing along nicely. Amongst this year’s
eclectic program of lectures, video
screenings and performances, you can
enjoy music by David Horvitz and the
Nýló choir, drink cocoa with Ragnar
Helgi Ólafsson and view the solo ex-
hibition by 2017’s honorary artist Joan
Jones, a New York-based artist who has
been investigating time-based struc-
tures and the politics of spectatorship
through her work since the late 1960s.
Don’t be late!
Words:
Charley Ward
Photo:
Nancy Lupo
27
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The first arts festival in Iceland to focus on temporal art
Like Fear Factor 'Cept Art
Midscape | Claire Paugam
Oct. 7 to 20, Listastofan, Free!
French artist Claire Paugam
delves into various mediums of
art. If you have an eye for all things
texture and unsettling visuals,
Midscape is worth checking out.
It may be hard to look at a picture
of a real heart or of flesh but that’s
the point right? This exhibition
will test your level of discomfort
through a journey of the body as
a landscape. Try not to gag, and
enjoy the poetic process of life. JM
Glitter-Spreading Disco-
Dance Machine
CGFC’s “Headliner”
Oct. 6, 21:30,
Þjoðleikshúskjallarinn, 1.500 ISK
Experimental arts group CGFC
will premiere their highly-rated
performance, “Headliner”, in
Reykjavík on Oct 6 after a Euro-
pean tour. Formed during LungA
Festival in 2015, the four are an
arts collective whose work spans
installation, music, dance, and
theatre. “Headliner” is the latter;
it’s a play staged as if by children
in a family living room that ques-
tions ideas and expectations about
growing up—or not. JR
Event On The Horizon
SciFi Underground FilmFest
Oct. 11, 20:00, Gaukurinn, 1.000 ISK
Where we are going we don’t need
eyes. Well, that’s a lie, but Event
Horizon is an excellent movie. It
has a neat sci-fi concept: a space-
ship and Sam Neill. But, sadly,
you’ll need eyes to enjoy the fan-
tastical Iceland SciFi Under-
ground FilmFest at Gaukurinn.
At 21:00 you can participate in the
“Battle of the best!” where you’ll
watch the winning films from the
Munich and Saigon film fests and
vote for the best. EÞ
Electro-pop duo, East of My Youth,
have been making international
rounds in the past years. In mid-
September, they came out with
a brand new song and video. The
Berlin-based project is comprised of
Thelma Marín Jónsdóttir and Herdís
Stefánsdóttir, who earlier this year
put out their first EP of glossy and
expertly produced songs. Their latest
offering is a chic slice of Scandi-core
electro-pop in the vein of Lykke Le,
Robyn or Bat for Lashes. It has airy
vocals, shimmering layers of synths,
and a rhythmic structure that keeps
on building for the duration of the
song.
The video is beautifully shot
and has four girls in red swimsuits
with swimming caps doing choreo-
graphed dance routines on the side
of an old school swimming pool. The
video’s quirky colours and Wes An-
derson-esque symmetry match the
mood of the song perfectly. It was
premiered via Clash Magazine and
the upcoming EP, ‘EOMY,’ is out in
January 2018.
Talking about Icelanders in Ber-
lin, one of the things we apparently
missed in August was the release of
‘Swim,’ an EP by the one-man band
Laser Life, who we've told you about
before in this very column. The one
man in question is Breki Steinn
Mánason,  a 25-year-old guitarist
whose roots lie in East Iceland, and
hardcore rock acts such as Gunsling-
er. He now resides in Berlin where he
studies electronic music production.
On his first LP as Laser Life, Breki
mixed the classical synth/organ an-
tics of Apparat with the guitar hero
leanings of Ratatat and naive mel-
odies reminiscent of old Nintendo
games, with impressive results.
On his latest six song EP the gui-
tar doesn’t take the centre stage as
much as on his last album, but gi-
gantic layers of thick icy synths and
complex beat programming steal
the show. He even sings on one song,
‘Stundum’ (‘Sometimes’), a gorgeous
and dreamy down-tempo electro cut,
that edges its way into your brain.
Our favorite cut though is strangely
titled ‘Mogwai.’ Its repeated synth
motif sounds both sci-fi and Bach-y.
It's retro-futurism at its best, also
remiscent of ‘Verdis Quo,’ made by
Daft Punk when they were at their
peak. The EP is released as cassette
which you can purchase through La-
ser Life’s Bandcamp site, and you can
also stream the album or buy it digi-
tally.
Words:
Óli Dóri &
Davíð Roach
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