Iceland review - 2004, Side 6

I moved back to Reykjavík almost five years ago, after an eight year stint abroad.
Amazing, I thought, how this tiny place had changed in the course of that time. No
longer a city where dead calm reigned throughout weekdays, where not a soul was seen
out lunching at restaurants or sipping wine or latte at the bars and cafés,which were few
and far between. No longer a city where you felt like you were somehow missing out on
international scenes. No, in the space of those few years, Reykjavík had become
renowned for its energy – its thriving culture, lively nightlife and creative atmosphere.
An American I spoke to remarked that Reykjavík had that same magical buzz of New
York in the seventies and Berlin in the eighties. The numbers of tourists just visiting
Iceland for a stay in the capital of cool are constantly rising.
Meet the crowd that hang around in the city centre. Most of them have three
or four different occupations: musician, artist, writer, designer...and whatever comes
into their heads, they make it happen. Just like videographer Börkur Sigthórsson (Urban
Myths, p.20) explained to me: “Everyone knows each other and it´s easy to group people
together. This means that it´s easy for them to get good projects going and to make dar-
ing decisions.” Nowhere is this surge of creativity as blatantly apparent as in KlinK &
BanK,(see p. 33) home to the underground art scene and refuge of some 137 artists and
musicians: truly a revolutionary move for the city’s artistic community.
Mind you, I also often hear foreigners claiming that Icelanders are not so much
creative as they are plain crazy, a fact that could be put down to the strange arctic light,
so blindingly and constantly bright during midsummer, and so very absent on cold win-
ter days. This issue of Iceland Review is dedicated to the city that never sleeps in summer.
Our beloved northern capital,Reykjavík, perched on the beautiful Faxaflói Bay under the
watchful eye of Mount Esja, a place where nature, light and the brisk ocean breeze bring
inspiration, energy and a whole lot of attitude.
Annual subscription (worldwide): USD 34.50 or equivalent in other currencies. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Submittals
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duced elsewhere in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher. ISSN 0019-1094
Anna Margrét Björnsson
FROM THE EDITOR
ICELAND REVIEW
Published quarterly for international
distribution by Heimur Ltd.
04 ICELAND REVIEW
Editor
Anna Margrét Björnsson
Associate and Picture Editor
Páll Stefánsson
Design
Helga Gudn‡ Ásgeirsdóttir
Design: Reykjavík Pure Energy
Erlingur Páll Ingvarsson
Editorial Staff
Edward Weinman
Ian Alex MacNeil
Proof-Reader and Copy Editor
Bart Cameron
Alda Sigmundsdóttir
Contributing photographers
Ragnar Axelsson
Thorkell Thorkelsson
Morgunbladid
Contributing Writers
John Boyce
Rachael LeValley
Contributing Stylist
Agnieszka Barnowska
Production
Helga Gudn‡ Ásgeirsdóttir
Erlingur Páll Ingvarsson
Advertising Sales
Ottó Schopka
Sigrídur Hanna Sigurbjörnsdóttir
Subscriptions
Anna Gudn‡ Fridleifsdóttir
Publisher
Benedikt Jóhannesson
Head Office
Borgartún 23,
105 Reykjavík, Iceland.
Tel: (354) 512 7575
Fax: (354) 561 8646
icelandreview@heimur.is,
www.icelandreview.com
Printed in Iceland by
Oddi Ltd, Reykjavík.
on the cover: Artist Jón Sæmundur Audarson and designer Thur‡
Sigthórsdóttir captured by Páll stefánsson at the reykjavík
harbour see pages 12-18.
IR204_editor 16.6.2004 14:03 Page 4