Reykjavík Arts Festival opens May 15
Next Friday, on 15 May the Reykjavík Arts Festival will begin: a two-week programme of exciting events will take place on the city's streets, in theatres, concert halls, opera houses, art museums and galleries, lighthouses, private homes and selected places in the countryside. The Opening Ceremony will be on 15 May at Kjarvalsstaðir museum, when the exhibition Unuhús and West 8th Street, featuring the art of painters Nína Tryggvadóttir and Louisa Matthíasdóttir, will also be opened. The Reykjavík Arts Festival 2009, which continues until 31 May, will cover art in a wide range of genres. More than 70 events will feature the work of around 500 local and international artists.
The varied programme will touch on almost every aspect of the arts, but music will take pride of place this year with a number of ambitious music events. Among these are a recital by American soprano Deborah Voigt, at Háskólabíó Concert Hall at the end of the festival, and the premiere of the Faeroese opera, The Madman's Garden, by Sunleif Rasmussen, in co-operation with The National Theatre of Iceland and The National Stage of the Faroe Islands. The first concert appearance in some years by Mexican-Canadian songwriter and poet, Lhasa de Sela, with her band, will be a major event, as will be a piano recital by young virtuoso Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson at Háskólabíó Concert Hall, and a concert by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the legendary Russian, Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Other events which no music lover should miss include performances by the Tiger Lillies and Trio Nordica, the Icelandic opera project Hel, by Sigurður Sævarsson, and Living Room Concerts – musical performances in the intimate surroundings of artists' own homes.
A number of events are the result of inspiring and fruitful collaborations: pop band Hjaltalín hosts a concert with a chamber orchestra, led by the promising young conductor and composer Daníel Bjarnason, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra joins forces with conductor Vladimir Stoupel to bring us the work of female composers from the East, and The Reykjavík Big Band hosts one of the brightest stars in the big band firmament, saxophonist and Grammy award-winner Bob Mintzer.
The festival reaches far and wide, from events in lighthouses and in the streets, to locations in the countryside: Strange Fruit, a colourful entourage of street artists from Australia, will perform on May 16 downtown Reykjavík; and May 17 a grand-scale visual arts project, Stray Beacons, will take place in four lighthouses – one in each section of the country. The lighthouse exhibitions, curated by Markús Þór Andrésson and Dorothée Kirch, are organised in collaboration with the Icelandic Maritime Administration and other relevant bodies. The general public will be invited to join several artists in a walk from the city centre to the Washing Springs in Laugardagur and, for the first time ever, will be welcomed in writers’;; homes to hear them read from their work.
The visual arts will be represented by exciting shows and events, including: five sculptures in the guise of Trailer Women, which will appear at various places in the city during the Festival; the Environmental Clinic will address the pressing issues of climate change and economical crisis; Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir will show her work at Gallery i8; and Olga Bergmann will exhibit at the Reykjanesbær Art Museum; The Modern in the 20th Century will show the connection between photography and modern design; and Hulda Hákon will exhibit at the Akureyri Art Museum.
Other events cross the city limits: Bob Mintzer and the Reykjavík Big Band will play at Ketilhús in Akureyri; selected Living Room Concerts will be held in Ísafjörður, Eskifjörður and Eyrarbakki; and Sten Sandell and Sverrir Guðjónsson will perform Völuspá at the Settlement Centre in Borgarnes.
At the dawn of a new republic, dramatic events will unfold at the Refugee Camp in the Icelandic Culture Centre, as Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir leads a group of 50 artists in an invasion of our cultural heritage at the exhibition/happening Orbis Terrae-ORA. In the thick of it all, Hjálmar Sveinsson holds a panel discussion – Art can change the world, art can maintain the status quo.