Iceland review - 2014, Page 12

10 ICELAND REVIEW
Down To earTh
only a century ago, half of the population of Iceland still lived in turf
houses, in the same fashion as their medieval forefathers. crymogea
has now published a big book by hjörleifur Stefánsson entitled from
Earth, Icelandic Earth Architecture. the Icelandic turf houses are part
of the world’s heritage, and a precious part of the architectural history
of a whole nation, exclusively marked by turf dwellings.
ragnar, arT supersTar
ten artists from eight countries have been shortlisted for the u.K.’s largest
contemporary art prize. the 2015 winner of the Artes Mundi prize will receive
£40,000. the finalists come from the u.K., the u.S., portugal, Israel, croatia, Brazil
and the netherlands, in addition to Iceland’s Ragnar Kjartansson. the shortlist
was compiled from 800 nominations from 70 countries, and organizers have said
that this year’s list includes superstars in the world of contemporary art.
sCIenCe, noT fICTIon
Vísindabók Villa, a children’s science book by rocker and media
man Vilhelm Anton Jónsson has been flying off the shelves,
receiving five star reviews, even beating the subscribers of the
top selling spots, crime king and queen Arnaldur Indriðason and
yrsa Sigurðardóttir. the book has even been nominated for the
Icelandic literature prize, announced in late January.
pIllar of roCk
drangar is a new album by the new super group drangar, which could be
translated as ‘pillar of Rock.’ the three members, Jónas Sig, Ómar Guðjónsson
and Örn elías Guðmundsson, better known as Mugison, are all very successful
solo musicians. not only is the new album straight forward and honest, it is so
unmistakably Icelandic. how? It is hard to explain; is it the sound or the texts,
which are all in Icelandic, or just the plain joy they seem to share in making this
music. All songs and lyrics are written jointly by the trio. the best song, maybe,
just maybe: ‘Bál.’ there is a fire in that song.
Culture Club BY PÁll stefÁnssOn