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Iceland’s avant-garde art world is a treasure trove for culturally curious visitors
While Iceland may be modest in size, it produces a tremendous amount of world-class creative work in various media, including music, fine art and performance art, photography, literature, and film. Its artists and musicians exude an artful blend of practicality, creativity, and ethereal elegance, even as each individual differs vastly in both style and substance. And while many visitors often head straight to its headline tourist destinations, Icelandic art and culture have much to offer, from contemporary art to folk-based outsider crafts.
We spoke to Icelandic artist and curator Dagrun Adalsteindottir about her craft, her inspirations, and a few of her favourite Icelandic artists.
Can you tell us a bit about your background, and how you got involved in the arts in Iceland?
The school system is very different in Iceland – we don't start university until 20 years old. Before that, we attend college where you can try out different fields to find your interest. In college, I attended art classes and after that, there was no turning back for me – I took a very serious decision to be an artist at 17 years old. I loved my art history classes, it was such an eye-opening experience, and I felt constantly challenged and my ideas pushed further about many things – society, ideology and the human psyche.
Are there any inherently Icelandic sensibilities that inform your art or process?
It’s very hard to define what could be an Icelandic sensibility, but perhaps if I would have to try it would be humour – sometimes very morbid humour. And I feel this is very much a part of my work and my character – this sense of humour that lies between laughter and melancholia.
What are some of your strongest inspirations?
I have spent most of my life in Reykjavík, even though I’m currently based in Berlin, so that tiny city has had a lot of impact on me in many ways. Reykjavík you can hardly call a city, it’s more like a big town (population around 280,000, I believe) and when you live in such a small place you really have a strong sense of community. This community makes things easier in many ways – if you want to organize a concert or an exhibition it’s very easy to get things done and just make it happen, which can be much more challenging in bigger cities. So this has impacted me a lot in being kind of positive, trying to make things happen, and using my community to help me build things up. This sense of community I’m trying to keep with me but not have it exclusively with Icelandic people, but rather in my art community where I feel working together is much more uplifting rather than seeing each other as competitors. I also have been incredibly lucky that I have been able to travel a lot in my life, and places such as India, China and Ethiopia have been very impactful for different reasons.
Tell us about the Icelandic art community in Berlin
There is a big community of Icelandic artists in Berlin – it’s not so far from home, but offers a lot of more opportunities in the art world, so sustaining [one’s career] is easier and cheaper. I think the characteristic of every community in Berlin is this mixture of everything: all kinds of cultures and attitudes come together. But we as small country behave a bit like a tribe when we are out in the big world, I have had a lot of support and help from my Icelandic community settling here both in finding housing and other practical things. There is even an Icelandic group on Facebook with Berliners.
Tell us five of your favourite Icelandic artists
One of my favourite Icelandic artist is Ragnar Kjartansson – he is having a big moment in the global art world right now. He does really interesting performances that are always a repetition of melancholic and humorous moments that are really captivating and emotional. He is a totally emo artist that I really love! I also like Hreinn Friðfinnsson. His work is very poetic and philosophical but usually visually very simple and elegant. Then you cannot skip mentioning Björk – growing up in Iceland she is a big influencer, such a great artist and singer. One of my favourite Icelandic writers is Oddný Eir Ævarsdóttir – she writes autobiographical books that are also fiction and philosophical texts. I highly recommend her books. Then if you like to get into Icelandic history I would recommend Halldór Laxness, the only Icelandic person that has gotten the Nobel Prize for literature – many of his books have been translated and they capture how Iceland used to be not so long ago.
Any plans in Iceland coming up?
I’m working as a curator and an artist for a group show with eight artists from Iceland and Singapore that will open on 28 March 2020 through 6 June 2020 in Gerðarsafn Museum in Iceland. The exhibition is called Object of Desire and was shown this year at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Singapore.
