Iceland review - 2015, Síða 67

ICELAND REVIEW 65
It’s so nice that the absence of just one
person is so felt. In New York, you never
notice when people leave. There’s so much
mobility, so much movement.” During her
residency, Annie began work on a series
on single mothers in Iceland and was also
a guest photographer on the New Yorker’s
Instagram page, where she posted pictures
from the town. “There was a lot of interest,
actually. People were commenting that they
wanted to visit Ólafsfjörður and I wouldn’t
be surprised if some did because of the
project.”
Like Annie, Nastasya says that despite
the stereotype that people are really closed
in Iceland, her experience has been dif-
ferent. She and Yiannis started their resi-
dency later than the others. “We arrived a
few days before Christmas and panicked,
because we wanted to get intimate shots of
Christmas dinners in people’s homes. We
met people around town, mentioned what
we were doing and were invited over. By
Christmas Eve, there were even presents
for us under a family Christmas tree, knit-
ted by their grandmother.”
Nastasya also hosted an Instagram feed
from Ólafsfjörður, for American-based
culture journal Roads and Kingdoms, pro-
ducing a series on the town’s secret lives.
“People let us tell their most private sto-
ries. We photographed a fisherman’s wife
pole-dancing in her lounge, an elderly cou-
ple waltzing in their kitchen. People told
us about drug addictions, of the dreams
they’d had that failed. It’s been a privilege,”
she says. “We feel very lucky,” Yiannis adds.
“In Greek, we say philoxenia for hospitality.
Philos means friend. We have friends here
now. And we hope they’ll come and visit.”
Providing opportunities for international
exchange, along with cooperation between
artists, is one of the aims of the program,
offering stays of one to six months. Alice
says she puts particular emphasis on emerg-
ing artists. “I want new ideas to come
through here. I think artists need new
spaces, elements, inspirations, people and
ideas and I think that the younger gen-
eration of artists in particular has a lot to
offer.”
While Skammdegi was held for the first
time during winter 2014-15, Listhús offers
other residencies too, year-round. In 2014,
ART
Opposite page: One of Anton Benois’ ‘herring shrines’; Above clockwise: At the annual Christmas party in the Tjarnarborg Culture House (2:16 pm, December
26); A row of houses after a night of snowfall (9:44 am, January 16); A baby sleeping outside in its stroller, a common practice in Iceland (12:49 pm, January
12); The aqua aerobics class crams into the communal hot tub (5:14 pm on January 15).
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