Reykjavík Grapevine - Jul 2021, Page 20

The Crazy Idea Of
Openin! An Art
Gallery In A Gas
Station
Meet Y Gallery, the new kid on the Hamrabor!
block
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick & Leifur Wilberg
Info
Check out Y Gallery at Hamraborg
12 or at ygallery.is. It’s open on
Wednesdays and Saturdays from
14:00 to 18:00.
An abandoned Olís gas station in
a Hamraborg parking garage has
found unexpected new life as Y
Gallery. Created by collaborators
Sigur!ur Atli Sigur!sson and Olga
Lilja Ólafsdóttir, the space seeks to
bring art straight to the public—or
to their cars.
Something different
The idea began when Olga and
Sigur!ur were collaborating on a
Christmas exhibition at Ásmun-
darsalur.
“We wanted to do something
different—something that would
benefit the art scene but also the
public,” Sigur!ur explains. “And
also give artists a different way of
getting their work out there.”
Olga nods. “At the Christmas
exhibition, we felt that the need
was definitely there for some-
thing like this,” she adds. “People
are interested in art but perhaps
the availability or accessibility of
it has been a problem. People may
feel like it’s too frightening to go
into galleries. It might seem like a
closed universe.”
The two then set out to make
something more all-encompassing
and open. “We weren’t interested
in starting a conventional gal-
lery. Galleries are great [at] what
they do, as are museums, but we
thought there was space for some-
thing different,” Sigur!ur contin-
ues. “So we thought, ‘How could we
do this?’ And then we came up with
this crazy idea of opening a gallery
in a gas station.”
A longtime dream
Sigur!ur had actually long had
his eye on the Hamraborg space, he
explains.
“I thought it was such an amaz-
ing place and I visited it from time
to time just because of the feel of
it, when it was a gas station,” he
smiles. “I told Olga that I wasn’t
interested in opening a gallery un-
less we could get this gas station in
Hamraborg. And then we figured
out it had just closed after 50 years.
It was a complete coincidence.”
They subsequently contacted
Olís, who thought the idea was fan-
tastic. But the renovations, both
explain, were extreme. “It was an
abandoned gas station. When I
came in, I have to admit I thought,
‘What have we got ourselves into?’”
Olga laughs. That said, the vision
came together once they removed
the film from the windows, re-
vealing large, clear panes of glass.
“Then I had the confidence that
this would be really nice,” she con-
cludes.
An Icelandic cité
The gas station, Sigur!ur contin-
ues, used to be quite a social hub
in the area, and now it’s once again
serving its purpose in a different
form.
“This space actually always
reminded me so much of France
and in the process of making the
gallery, we figured out that the ar-
chitect who designed Hamraborg,
in fact, studied in France in the
60s. Then he returned to Iceland
and made this building in 1972,”
Sigur!ur explains. “At the time,
French architects were calling all
of their houses ‘cité’, which is city
in French, and that’s what ‘borg’
means in Icelandic. It’s a symbol
for merging all the needs of the
modern human being into one
house. So in this huge house, there
are 220 apartments, retail hous-
ing, a gas station and now an art
gallery.”
He smiles. “And that works re-
ally well with our idea of Y Gal-
lery—to bring art to the public,”
he says. “And what better way than
to have it in your house?”
Arti8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
RAGNA RÓBERTSDÓTTIR
10 June - 31 July 2021
Open daily
10h00–17h00
artmuseum.is
#reykjavikartmuseum
Ásmundarsafn
Sigtúni
105 Reykjavík
+354 411 6430
13.05.–03.10.2021
Sirra Sigrún Sigurðardóttir
Ásmundur Sveinsson
As If to
Demonstrate
an Eclipse
Not pictured: Cars.
Sigur"ur & Olga
“So, in this
huge house,
there are 220
apartments,
retail housing,
a gas station
and now an art
gallery.”