EVENTS

NOTABLE EVENTS MULINN JAZZ CLUB - NAT KING COLE - BEST OF CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 14 - HARPA This quartet honours the legendary Nat King Cole trio. The jazz club Múlinn is at the top of Harpa, the glamorous multiple-music venue at the heart of Reykjavik. On a clear night, sometimes the Aurora Borealis can be seen from the balcony. You will hear all the songs you love, including The Christmas Song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Holy Night and many more; the spirit of famous crooners won’t be far away. The trio of players includes some of the most renowned jazz musicians in Iceland. Þór Breiðfjörð is one of the main “crooner” singers in Iceland, having recorded the Christmas album “Jól í stofunni” (available on Spotify) a few years back.

ANDKRISTNI METAL FEST

DECEMBER 16 & 17 - GAUKURINN Andkristnihátið is the longest-running metal festival in Iceland, going back to the year 2000. Some of the best black metal bands in Iceland will take the stage alongside some up-and-coming metal acts from the US, Ireland and Germany. If you are a metal fan, don‘t miss this two-day, ear-punishing fest.

BRÍET’S HOLIDAYS CONCERT

DECEMBER 16 & 17 - FRÍKIRKJAN Singer-songwriter Bríet will celebrate the holidays by hosting a unique and intimate concert with her boyfriend Rubin Pollock, and his best friend, Þorleifur Gaukur. The concert will be cosy, friendly and loads of fun.

Together they will play songs from Bríet’s debut album ‘Kveðja, Bríet’ alongside their favourite Holiday songs. Do not miss this opportunity to get away from all the Holiday preparations and enjoy their beautiful music.

CHRISTMAS AT THE SYMPHONY

DECEMBER 17-18 AT 2PM OR 4 PM. At this year’s Christmas concerts, the Orchestra offers a wide range of music that has long been an indispensable part of the holiday season. Solo vocalists Alexander Jarl Þorsteinsson, Björk Níelsdóttir, and Kolbrún Völkudóttir; the Reykjavík Girls’ Choir; the Litlu Sprotarnir Sign Language Choir; and the Reykjanes Music School Bell Choir perform Christmas favourites. Dancers from the Iceland Ballet Academy and groups of young instrumentalists take the stage as well. With Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as Master of Ceremonies in the role of the inimitable Barbara the Clown, the festive mood will infect everyone. Christmas at the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra is an event no music lover should miss.

CHRISTMAS MOVIES

ALL DECEMBER - BÍÓ PARADÍS Throughout December, Bíó Paradís will be showing some classic modern Christmas movies, like Home Alone, Love Actually, and Die Hard. Check their schedule for details at bioparadis.is.

NEW YEAR’S EVE RUN

DECEMBER 31 AT 12PM. Every year, the ÍR track and field hosts a fun run in Reykjavík. What better way to say goodbye to 2022 than to literally run away from it? Choose between an easy 3K or the longer 10K course. Both races start and end at Harpa Concert Hall. You might be tempted to bundle up against the cold of late December, but keep in mind that a prize is given for the most unique costume! To register and for more information, visit https://netskraning.is/ gamlarshlaupir/.

SIGURJÓN ÓLAFSSON MUSEUM

A Mural without a Wall

A poster and sculpture exhibition relating the story of Sigurjón Ólafsson’s monumental relief Stacking Saltfish, which was originally supposed to decorate the house of the Fish Industry in Reykjavík. In the end, the relief became a free-standing wall in the vicinity of the College of Navigation in Reykjavík. New research revealed severe deterioration in the relief, suggesting that previous repair-work was unsuccessful.

REYKJAVIK ART MUSEUM ÁSMUNDARSAFN

Ásmundur Sveinsson and Unndór Egill Jónsson

Contemporary sculptor Unndór Egill Jónsson presents a new body of work framed as a response or conversation with the work and legacy of Ásmundur Sveinsson. The museum itself was designed and built as a studio and home by Ásmundur. All about light, the modernist concrete structure is (apparently) a mix of the Mediterranean and Nordic styles, though that might take a minute. If you’ve not been, it’s a very cool space and well worth checking out. Unndór Egill’s practice mixes woodwork, furniture and kinetic timber machinery. It will be interesting to see how it fits with the singular vision of Ásmundur’s beautiful, peculiar space.

AURORA REYKJAVÍK

Catch the Aurora Borealis All Year Round

There is perhaps nothing more magical than witnessing the beauty of a northern lights display.

Aurora Reykjavík Unndór Egill Jónsson

However, those unpredictable, ever dancing lights don’t always show up on cue – and fade away during the summer months. So, it is with great joy that we welcome Aurora Reykjavík – The Northern Lights Centre, where the northern lights are always on display. Aurora Reykjavík’s pull and ace up its sleeve is its fantastic 4k timelapse film of the Aurora Borealis. Aurora Reykjavík’s latest additions are virtual reality goggles featuring the world’s first 360° movie of aurora displays entirely shot in Iceland. If you can’t catch the northern lights yourself, this utterly realistic experience is definitely the next best option to witness the beauty of this truly amazing phenomenon.Capturing the northern lights with your own camera can be challenging, but at Aurora Reykjavík, you receive instruction by the experts: bring your camera and try the right settings at the Northern Lights Photo Simulator. In the exhibition, you will find an entertaining selfie booth – have fun looking all fabulous under the northern lights!

For more information, see www.aurorareykjavik.is.

HOME OF AN ARTIST

A Window in Reykjavík – Ásgrímur Jónsson’s house

The exhibition A Window in Reykjavík comprises a selection of works by Ásgrímur Jónsson. The common feature of these works is that they relate to the artist’s surroundings in Reykjavík.

Ásgrímur Jónsson (1876–1958) is one of the pioneers in the history of Icelandic art; he was the first Icelandic painter to make a career in art. The view from the window of Vinaminni, where he first lived on his return to Iceland, became a favourite motif for him, with its vista of Reykjavík Harbour and Mt. Esja across the bay. Watercolour was an appropriate medium for capturing the quality of the light over the waters of Skerjafjörður and the houses on Laufásvegur. Ásgrímur’s life and oeuvre span a long period of Iceland’s history – a time when the old rural society was starting to decline and Reykjavík was growing from a town into a city. Many of Ásgrímur’s paintings from Reykjavík, painted in the first half of the 20th century, depict a peaceful little town where houses cluster along the ocean shore; yet they also show economic activity, such as workmen building roads as the new urban society evolves.

Ásgrímur Jónsson Zanale Muholi

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ICELAND

Zanele Muholi

Opening on October 15 at the National Gallery of Iceland is an exhibition of the works of South African photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi. Muholi‘s powerful images capture the struggle for the rights of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex people in the artist‘s home country. Muholi gives a voice to those who have to battle daily for recognition of their identity.

More than 100 photographs, together with video works, provide insight into these marginalised communities: Muholi‘s sincere view focuses especially on identity politics, prohibitions, hate crime and rape, but also on pride, resistance, unity and love.

Jewellery by Dieter Roth

Dieter Roth (1930—1998) was a pioneer who respected no boundaries: a thinker, trailblazer, poet, musician, filmmaker and visual artist. A less well-known aspect of his career is that he also made an impression with his Dieter Roth

creation of innovative jewellery, starting in Iceland in the late 1950s. The first pieces of jewellery designed by Roth were made in collaboration with his wife, artist Sigríður Björnsdóttir, at the kitchen table in their home; but before long, they were offered better facilities in the atelier of goldsmith Halldór Sigurðsson at Skólavörðustígur 2 in central Reykjavik.

Roth‘s jewellery, generally composed of screws, bolts and other mechanical parts, could be assembled in various different ways, and reconfigured. His jewellery-making was characterised by the same approach as his art: he made use of materials that were generally dismissed as waste or refuse, which he transformed. No two objects are alike; Dieter Roth was familiar with the qualities of the material and worked directly with it. In the 1960s, Roth embarked on a collaboration with Swiss goldsmith Hans Langenbacher; the two men had first met at the atelier of goldsmith Jón Sigmundsson in Reykjavík in 1958, and had been impressed by each other‘s methods, use of materials, and skill.

REYKJAVIK ART MUSEUM KJARVALSSTAÐIR

Jóhannes S. Kjarval: First Snow

The works of art featured in the exhibition are some of the key paintings of Kjarval’s career, as well as some that are rarely seen by the public. The exhibition features paintings and drawings from Kjarval’s entire career, illuminating the diversity and depth of his life’s work. Nature and Iceland’s landscapes were his main subject, but he also made several portraits and what he called “fantasies”, where the artist’s subjective interpretation leads the way and dreamlike landscapes filled with fantastical creatures blur the lines between reality and dreams. The works are from the Reykjavík Art Museum’s collection, as in 1968, Kjarval donated a large part of his work and personal items to the city.

Guðjón Ketilsson: Jæja

The Icelandic phrase ‚jæja‘ can mean anything or nothing. It means nothing on its own, but it can carry a lot of weight, depending on the context. It can be a word of sympathy, a verbal smirk, or simply something to say to fill an awkward silence. Sculptor Guðjón Ketilsson channels this nuance into his new exhibition, Jæja. He creates works of art out of ordinary or mundane objects and gives them a new context, so their meanings change. Traditionally, he has created works composed of found furniture that he has treated in his own unique way, finely polished wooden objects that look like little-seen useful objects in a museum, highly detailed drawings of body parts, houses and buildings of all kinds, a collection of junk that he has collected and arranged as a whole, photographs of arranged objects and clothing - all kinds of clothing carved in wood, such as shoes, loincloths and hats. Jæja will run from October 1 through mid-January at Kjarvalsstaðir. Jóhannes S. Kjarval

Guðjón Ketilsson

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ICELAND

The Making of a Nation Heritage and History in Iceland

The National Museum of Iceland’s permanent exhibition, Making of a Nation – Heritage and History in Iceland, is intended to provide insight into the history of the Icelandic nation from the settlement to the present day. The aim is to cast light on the Icelanders’ past by placing the cultural heritage preserved by the National Museum in a historical context, guided by the question: what makes a nation? The exhibition includes about 2,000 objects dating from the Settlement Age to the present, as well as about 1,000 photographs from the 20th century. The exhibition is conceived as a journey through time: it begins with the ship in which mediaeval settlers crossed the ocean to their new home, and it ends in a modern airport, the Icelanders’ gateway to the world.

Saga of Hofstaðir, Unearthing the Past in North Iceland

At Hofstaðir, in the district of Lake Mývatn, North Iceland, extensive archaeological excavations have been carried out over the past three decades. The site includes remains from the Viking Age to the 20th century. A huge Viking-Age structure was excavated: a hall or longhouse where people gathered on social occasions, with other smaller buildings around it. The hall is one of the largest structures ever excavated in Iceland. In addition, a churchyard was excavated at Hofstaðir, which is one of the oldest churchyards unearthed in Iceland. Whole families were laid to rest in the cemetery, and their bones yield evidence about their lives. The face of one of the women buried at Hofstaðir has been reconstructed using DNA technology, and a drawing of her is included in the exhibition.

From mire to metal

In the past, iron smelting from bog iron was performed in Iceland. The use of metallurgical furnaces called bloomeries were used to smelt iron throughout the Middle Ages. Thereafter the practice steadily declined until it was completely abandoned in the 17th or 18th century. The knowledge of this ancient craftmanship has since been forgotten to time, leaving numerous questions about the bloomery process unanswered.

For a long time, scientists have attempted to answer questions about bloomery in Iceland. How was bog iron processed? How were bloomery furnaces constructed, isolated, and ignited? What quality of iron could be produced from Icelandic bog iron?

The exhibition From mire to metal explores bloomery research in Iceland. Bloomery experiments summer after summer, students and teachers travelled around the country to measure and draw the unique Icelandic turf architecture as well as other buildings in danger of disappearing. Offering a glimpse into life as a “measurer” in 1970s Iceland, the exhibition aims to give an insight into the expeditions and the invaluable source material that was derived from them. While Iceland’s neglected 19th century timber houses were measured as an integral part of their preservation and later restoration, most of the turf houses perished or fell into ruin. In many cases, the architecture schools’ documentation is the only existing source in relation to these buildings.

were carried out at Eiríksstaðir, successfully smelting iron for the first time from Icelandic bogs in centuries.

In the eleventh hour

In the 1970s, only a few of Iceland’s turf houses were still inhabited. Having served as the primary form of housing for more than a thousand years, the Icelandic turf farm had now played out its role, and with no comprehensive preservation plan in sight, the remaining farms faced extinction. An Icelandic architecture student in Copenhagen set out and documented a representative selection of the Icelandic turf farms before it was too late. Working closely with the National Museum of Iceland and other parties to identify important subjects for their surveys, Making of a Nation

ÁRBÆR OPEN AIR MUSEUM

Árbær was an established farm well into the 20th century, and the museum opened there in 1957. Árbær is now an open-air museum with more than 20 buildings which form a town square, a village and a farm. Most of the buildings have been relocated from central Reykjavik.Árbær Open Air Museum tries to give a sense of the architecture and way of life and lifestyles of the past in Reykjavík and during summer visitors can see domestic animals. There are many exhibitions and events held at the Museum, which highlight specific periods in Reykjavik’s history. These include craft days, vintage car displays, Christmas exhibitions and much more. There is something for everyone at Árbær Open Air Museum.

Karólína the Weaver

Karólína Guðmundsdóttir (1897-1981) learned weaving in Copenhagen, and for several decades she ran a weaving atelier on Ásvallagata in Reykjavík. She wove upholstery and curtain fabrics for public bodies, businesses and homes, where the colours and textures harmonised with their surroundings. Her embroidery fabrics were used in school pupils‘ needlework projects for many years, and embroidered wall-hangings and cushions from Karólína‘s atelier adorned many Icelandic homes. She was thus an influence upon Icelanders‘ home furnishings

Árbær Open Air Museum and taste. In addition, her work led people to recognise the fine qualities of Icelandic wool and changed attitudes to crafts and needlework.

Consumption - Reykjavík in the 20th century

The exhibition aims to show the huge and rapid changes that took place in consumption patterns in Reykjavík during the 20th century – to explore the factors that affected consumption, and how technical advances, government actions, wars, and events in Iceland and abroad influenced the daily life of the people of Reykjavík.

EINAR JÓNSSON MUSEUM

This is a museum in the heart of Reykjavík that houses the work of Iceland’s first sculptor Einar Jónsson. The museum contains close to 300 artworks spanning a 60-year career: carvings from the artist’s youth, sculpture, paintings and drawings. A beautiful tree-clad garden adorned with 26 bronze casts of the artist’s works is located behind the museum. The task of the museum is to collect, preserve and display the work of Einar as well as to conduct research on his life and art. Einar Jónsson Museum

THE SETTLEMENT EXHIBITION

The Settlement Exhibition

An open excavation where Viking ruins meet multimedia technology. Just below ground in downtown Reykjavík, this open excavation uncovers the city’s Viking Age history. Discovered during building work in 2001, these archaeological remains turned out to be the earliest evidence of human settlement in the city, with some dating to before AD 872. Careful excavation revealed a 10th-century hall or longhouse, which is now preserved in its original location as the focal point of the exhibition. Interactive technology immerses you in the world of the Reykjavík farm at the time of the first settlers, including information on how Viking Age buildings were constructed and what life was like in the hall. The Settlement Exhibition is part of Reykjavík City Museum.

AÐALSTRÆTI 10

Aðalstræti ...and the story continues

Family-friendly and informative exhibition about the development of Reykjavík, from farm to city. This new display is a direct continuation of The Settlement

Exhibition, representing Reykjavík’s history from settlement to the present day. Visitors get an insight into the complex history and culture of Reykjavík through the development of house construction and planning with a stop at the oldest house in the city centre, Aðalstræti 10.

The admission is valid to both Aðalstræti 10 and The Settlement Exhibition in Aðalstræti 16.

REYKJAVIK MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Elvar Örn Kjartansson: The System Elvar Örn’s carefully considered collection of photographs presents images of industrial plant machinery, engineering works, treatment plants and other functional infrastructure. All the stuff you never see, or even think of unless it breaks. Photographed with a clinical and utilitarian approach, these are the spaces upon which our civilisation rests. An interesting and thought provoking show.

Daniel Bergmann: Falcons

The exhibition Fálkar/Falcons showcases a selection of photographs from Daníel Bergmann‘s book Fálkinn (The Gyrfalcon), published in Icelandic in October 2022. The book is the fruit of more than two decades of fieldwork by the photographer in the gyrfalcon territory in northeast Iceland. He photographed gyrfalcons at all seasons of the year; among other things, he observed one remarkably fine female through most of her life over a period of 15 years.

Daniel Bergmann

REYKJAVIK ART MUSEUM HAFNARHÚS

Norður og niður

Translated as Up and Down, this exhibition focuses on contemporary art in the Nordic region and features the work of around 30 artists from the Nordic region, Iceland, Canadian coastal areas, and the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. The artwork relay ideas related to the North: popular perceptions, climate change and environmental crisis, and the painful history of colonization of Indigenous peoples. The exhibition is a collaboration between three art museums: the Portland Museum of Art in the state of Maine in the USA, the Bildmuseet in Umeå in Sweden and the Reykjavík Art Gallery in Iceland. There, 30 artists show new works that deal with the changes that are taking place in society, nature and life in the Arctic at the beginning of the 21st century, and which are largely caused by climate change. The exhibition travels between partners from February 2022 to October 2023. It opens at Hafnarhús on October 13.

Sigurður Guðjónsson

Video artist Sigurður Guðjónsson will represent Iceland at the 2022 international curated exhibition Venice Biennale. Known for his voluminous video works where image, sound and space form an unbroken whole, Sigurður has made a name for himself in Iceland as one of the leading contemporary artists. He mainly focuses on the functionality of various equipment, Erró

where the viewer is lured into a world of soothing repetition, rhythm and order, and the boundaries between the human and the mechanical become blurred. Sigurður Guðjónsson was born in 1975 in Reykjavík. He studied at Billedskolen in Copenhagen 19981999, Iceland Academy of Arts 2000-2003 BA and Akademie Der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna 2004. He was chosen Visual Artist of the Year 2018. The exhibition in Hafnarhús, which opens on October 20, presents the artist’s new and older works that introduce Sigurðar’s unique artistic creation to the audience.

Erró: Freehand

In this exhibition on the 3rd floor some of Erró’s early works, where freehand line and form are foregrounded, meet later collagedbased works that source, freely mix and quote found visual material. Through them it is possible to follow Erró’s curiousity and quest in developing his collage-painting method, or visual quotation; a practice he continues to this day. A sense of restless, dynamic ability to entangle and change resonates in the human or human-like forms that move across the two-dimensional surfaces. In these works, these forms evolve over time – first as loosely, energetically drawn images from Erró’s imagination and then as layered collaged references that directly represent and rely on different print sources and places.

Fish • Lamb • Whale • Icelandic cuisine with a twist Icelandic music and nightlife Mix with the locals ...and all the Icelandic beers in one awsome place!

INGÓLFSSTRÆTI 1A 101 REYKJAVÍK

www.islenskibarinn.is postur@islenskibarinn.is sími: 517 6767

THE ICELANDIC PUNK MUSEUM

The Icelandic Punk Museum is located at Bankastræti 0, an underground location that served as public toilets from 1930 to 2006. The museum honours the music and the spirit that has shaped musicians and bands to this day; people who dared to be different. Objects, photographs, videos, posters, etc. from roughly 1978 to 1992 are on display with texts in Icelandic and English, and the main music from the period is available to guests.

HOUSE OF COLLECTIONS

National Treasures

The National Gallery of Iceland’s collection contains over eleven thousand works. In the exhibition Treasures of a Nation, a selection of works from the collection displays the evolution of art in Iceland from the early nineteenth century to our times. Resistance, Interplay of art and physics

Resistance is an interdisciplinary exhibition that bridges the gap between visual arts and science. The works on display are key works in the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland, that establish an interesting dialogue between art and science and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Punk Museum

The Ocean

The ocean is all around in an exhibition on level 2 at the House of Collections on Hverfisgata, Reykjavík, where the treasures of Icelandic art are on display. Visitors now have the opportunity to experience works that relate to the seas, and to the discourse on sustainability.

Welcome to Jómfrúin, the home of Danish smørrebrød in Reykjavik. It all began in 1888 with Oscars Davidsen’s highly praised smørrebrød restaurant in Copenhagen. An unbroken tradition of quality and Danish culinary culture for the past 100 years. Enjoy!