Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.12.2019, Síða 26

Come Into
Exxistenz
Freyja Eilíf opens new Reykjavík gallery
Words: a rawlings Photo: Art Bicnick
Gallery
Exxistenz is located at
Bergsta#astræti 25B, Reykjavík
“Perceptive art is made out of the
integration of reality with hand
movements whose intentions
recreate reality,” gallery director
Freyja Eilíf explains. “The inten-
tion I have for Exxistenz is that it
will be a creation for its own self.”
She sits in the studio section of
Exxistenz, the Museum of Percep-
tive Art, adjacent to the gallery’s
entrance. Upon entering the cosy,
plant-populated gallery, one faces
options:
1) Turn left to sit on snake-
adorned stools in Freyja Eilíf’s art
studio.
2) Turn left and walk deeper into
the museum to discover a group
show of curious non-entity enti-
ties by Kathy Clark or impossible
car headrests by "ór Sigur#órs-
son.
3) Turn right to enter the Flesh
Room, a cotton-candy pink mon-
strous extravaganza of a relaxa-
tion room.
4) Do not venture left or right, but
instead stare straight ahead to
consider the menu of existential
services available on location.
Welcome to this charming Exx-
istenz.
Out with the old
Exxistenz has replaced Freyja Ei-
líf’s former gallery, Ekkisens, in
its home on Bergsta!astræti. Ek-
kisens was initially started in 2014
as a way to showcase artwork by
recent art-school graduates.
“I felt like the ground work I
had laid out for Ekkisens had run
its course,” Freyja Eilíf says. “I felt
it did so after the first three years,
but instead of closing it, I kept it
running while I was puzzling out
what to do next.”
Spectacular vernacular
“I drew a snake intuitively two to
three years ago,” Freyja Eilíf re-
marks. “That snake turned out to
be the logo for this museum and
studio.”
Conversation with Freyja Eilíf
is populated with these spectacu-
lar animals—pregnant elephants,
burrowing rodents, and—yes—
her emblematic snake. To visit
Freyja Eilíf’s gallery-cum-muse-
um-cum-studio-cum-healing-
centre is to be immersed in a psy-
chedel ic womb
t ucke d b eh i nd
the grey residen-
tial streets of Ice-
land’s capital.
Of elephants
and moles
T he aforemen-
tioned pregnant
elephant in the
room is an image
Freyja conjures to
describe the pro-
tracted birth of
Exxistenz.
“It happened
very slowly,” she
explains. “Even
though I k new
exac t ly what I
wanted to do, it was still a bit of
a journey. I feel like I'm a blind
star-nosed mole trying to perceive
reality—get my way through and
find the answers. I'm still figuring
out what I'm doing here.”
Non-entity entities and
other fabulous beasts
For Exxistenz, Freyja Eilíf is in-
viting guest curators to populate
the space with group shows. The
inaugural group show is curated
by Johanne Christensen (DK) and
Serena Swanson (UK), featuring
ten artists. She has bowed out of
the curatorial process herself,
opting instead to integrate her
studio into an adjacent room of
the gallery.
“I am a weird curator; I cannot
make a show without including
myself,” she confesses. “It just
feels really bad to me. My status
is somehow artist and director of
the museum. I'm not sure I am a
curator unless I can include my-
self.”
Humanimalia
As for the existential services,
Freyja Eilíf offers interested cli-
ents healing sessions in the Flesh
Room. The services feature fantas-
tic names and descriptions for the
esoteric arts—from energy work to
past-life integration to Tarot.
Of her multimod-
al healing options,
she ex plai n s, “I
have configured my
practice with teach-
ers, so it's no hoo-
goo-boogoo. While
it's coded and pre-
sented in an artistic
way, it's real stuff.
It's deep work.”
The integration
of creative prac-
tice with the heal-
ing arts, as well as
artist’s studio with
gal ler y and per-
formance venue,
makes for an other-
worldly encounter
of the curative and
curatorial kind. Of
this alchemical blend, Freyja Eilíf
concludes, “I still host events and
exhibitions, and I make my own
practice. It's like following bread-
crumbs on the earth. I'm braiding
many things together as one.”
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“To visit Freyja Ei-
líf’s gallery-cum-
museum-cum-
studio-cum-
healing-centre is
to be immersed
in a psychedelic
womb tucked
behind the
grey residential
streets of Ice-
land’s capital.”
Freyja Eilíf, inspecting her domain
Kiss the Day Goodbye
12 December 2019 - 1 February 2020
CHARLES ATLAS
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
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