Iceland review - 2013, Qupperneq 23

ICELAND REVIEW 21
i8 is 18
Director/owner of i8 gallery, Börkur Arnarson, gives Páll Stefánsson a little
insight into the art world of Reykjavík, plus what they’re doing at i8.
We represent 22 international artists, like
Sigurður guðmundsson, Roni Horn,
Ólafur Elíasson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson,
Ragna Róbertsdóttir and Ragnar
Kjartansson, to name a few. Our job is to work for the artists so
they can concentrate on their art.”
We’re seated in the spacious meeting room in the back of the i8
gallery and Börkur Arnarson, the gallery’s director, asks if I want
more smoked goose salad.
“We’re here to help them saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to shows, galleries,
projects—it’s useful for artists to have someone to have that dia-
logue with. What I like best about this job is that it’s so rewarding,
to be between the artists and what they are making—and those
who love art, not just collectors, but anyone who is curious, inter-
ested, and like us, moved by good works of art.”
The salad is good. My next question for Börkur is what kind of
gallery i8 is. “It’s becoming a grown-up, that’s what comes to my
mind first. We turn 18 this year.” i8 was founded by artist Edda
Jónsdóttir, Börkur’s mother, and first located on Ingólfsstræti 8, as
the name i8 reflects. “It would be easy for some to describe our
program as conceptual, but the general idea is that we only show
works we’re interested in, by artists that we feel have something to
say.”
I wonder if there’s something we can call Icelandic art. “Let me
think... Well, we can’t object that works made in Iceland, or by
Icelanders, are by definition Icelandic, but the gallery never thinks
WORDS AND PORTRAIT BY PÁll STEfÁnSSon