Reykjavík Grapevine - 27.09.2019, Blaðsíða 19

We Used To Hate It,
Now We Miss It
Almar Atlason’s ‘Thirst & Promises’ is anythin! but stale
Almost four years ago, Almar Atlason,
a first-year art student at the Iceland
Arts Academy, presented his final proj-
ect. Naturally, he decided to spend a
week living naked in a glass box and
livestream it online. In a matter of days,
Almar was one of the most famous and
controversial artists in the country. Ev-
eryone in Iceland knew who he was—
and had seen him naked.
Now, he’s here with a peculiar new
project—a landscape painting exhi-
bition at Gallery Port called ‘Thirst &
Promises.’ While a series of landscapes
seems rather conventional for the ec-
centric artist, if you know Almar, you’ll
know it's anything but.
No mountains here
“When you’re in my line of work, you
can’t really complain about attention,”
Almar says, reminiscing on his naked-
man-in-a-box days. He’s sitting in his
cluttered studio, surrounded by assort-
ed knick-knacks. “It was weird, but it
was a little bit weirder a few years later
when I turned out to be a 23-year-old
divorced alcoholic has-been,” he laughs.
“Now, I’ve become a stale artist. I am
having a show with landscape paint-
ings and I play in a Bubbi Morthens
cover band. I don’t think you can get
any more stale than this, but I like it.”
Almar calls them landscapes, but
you’d be hard-pressed to find one de-
picting an idyllic countryside. “There’s
not a lot of mountains in them,” he says.
“I feel like everyone in Reykjavík is try-
ing to identify Reykjavík now, saying
‘Oh I miss when McDonalds was on
Laugavegur. The old signs and the old
businesses. These new businesses are
not as nice.’ But it seems everyone is
just missing something they used to
hate. Searching for an identity of what
it is being in Reykjavík because they
feel like they are losing something even
though they never really cared about it.”
It was this spark that drew Almar
from performance to painting for this
project. “Painting is like memorabil-
ia. It’s a documentation of a perfor-
mance,” he explains. “You look at the
brushstrokes and what the artist was
looking at and seeing how he moved,
the tools he used. It seemed good to use
this to tackle the loss you used to hate.
This turned into ‘Thirst & Promises.’”
The fishermen & the wives
These two words are, to Almar, the uni-
fying factors tying together Icelandic
society. “This promise, without hope,
that things will get better and this
endless thirst,” he explains. “Like the
old fishermen going out on the ocean
every single fucking day risking their
lives just to sleep way too little and do
it again the day after. Or the wives or
single mothers in these little farms be-
ing cold 363 days a year with a 13th child
in the belly going way too late to sleep
and waking up way too early just to be
able to repeat.” He pauses. “This thirst
interests me and I think painting is a
nice way to play with that.”
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo:
Art Bicnick
Words:
Alexander Le
Sage de Fontenay
Photo:
Album Cover
CULTURE
NEWS
ELECTRIC
DREAMS
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Almar is sponsored by Kókómjólk
Unapolo!etic Ener!y
And Good Vibes
Vi!orous music-duo We Are Not Romantic
are their own bi!!est fans
Prolific grassroots-collective and
music label Post-dreifing released
collaborative music duo We Are Not
Romantic’s debut album ‘Who’s In
Control?’ just two months ago, but
the project, created by Andrés !ór
!orvar"arson and Rakel Andrésdót-
tir, instantly found success on the
local music scene. In just a few days,
they had amassed a decent following.
I found them through their song
‘Nokia Calling.’ It was all over my In-
stagram feed and I’m happy to say I
gave in to the hype. The track’s re-
petitiveness and comically aggressive
tone emanates a post-ironic energy
Art Show
‘Thirst & Promises’
will be at Gallery
Port until October
3rd.
Music
We Are Not
Romantic’s
debut album
‘Who’s In
Control’ can
be streamed
on Spotify or
downloaded
from Bandcamp.
that grabbed me—an appropriate
fit for Reykjavík right now.
What makes We Are Not Roman-
tic so appealing is their unapolo-
getic energy, good vibes and the
fact they don’t take themselves too
seriously. “We like to dress up before
shows and generally want for us and
the audience to have a good time,”
Andrés explains. “We like to keep
things free and vague. We don’t re-
ally rehearse or decide beforehand
what we are going to do on-stage,”
Rakel adds.
Andrés and Rakel like to go with
the flow when it comes to writing
and performing. “This summer
we ended up playing almost every
weekend except one since we re-
leased the album,” Rakel says. “We
had no control.” Andrés adds. Rakel
continues: “I love making beats and
electronic music is fun—it’s a party!
Sometimes I get really tired after
our high-energy parties, but then I
just take naps.“
As I spoke with We Are Not Ro-
mantic, Andrés is about to go on
an internship abroad and Rakel
has started her last year studying
fine-arts at Iceland University of the
Arts. “We are working on a new al-
bum that will hopefully be released
before October,” Andrés says. “We
made new songs over a period of two
days,” Rakel adds. “And we are mak-
ing three music-videos with some
talented friends,” Andrés concludes.
“A man’s best friend is music.”
Freaks Assemble!
Coney Iceland
Sept, 29th - 21:00 - Gaukurinn -
3,000 ISK
If your idea of a fun night out is
watching someone hammer a nail
into their own face, swallow a
sword, or seeing the intriguing
results of a painting that used a
penis for a brush, then Coney
Iceland is right up your alley.
Replete with comedy, burlesque,
and rolicking fun times in good
company, it’s well worth checking
out for novices and seasoned
freaks alike. AF
A Sinister Swim
RIFF Swim-in-Cinema: ‘The Host’
Sept. 28th - 19:30 - Sundhöllin -
2,000 ISK
Iceland loves two things: Swimming,
movies, and drinking. Okay, that’s
three things, but who’s counting?
RIFF’s Swim-In-Cinema brings all
three together for one fantastic
experience in the old swimming
pool of Sundhöllin. There, the South
Korean film ‘The Host’ will be
screened while you float around
and make new pool-friends. But
keep your eyes on the film, both for
the sake of other guests as well as
the art—if you haven’t seen ‘The
Host,’ you haven’t lived. VG
It’s Art, Mom!
The Thirteenth Month
Until Nov. 2nd - Berg Contemporary
Green aliens, primaeval selfie sticks
and a black hole of shoes. Sounds
like a fun Tuesday night to us, but
it’s actually a new art installation
by Styrmir Örn Gu"mundsson at
Berg Contemporary. The exhibition
is highly interactive and has been
garnering quite a lot of attention.
Styrmir was allegedly inspired by
near-death-experiences, so dress
accordingly and remember to stay
hydrated. VG