Reykjavik Arts Festival opens next Thursday
The Reykjavík Arts Festival launches on May 15, 2008 with a groundbreaking series of visual and performing arts programs that will involve most of the city’;;s exhibition spaces and extend to other locations in Iceland. This year will mark the Festival’;;s second focus on contemporary visual art, following the critically acclaimed program presented in 2005. It will feature more than 20 exhibitions of nearly 100 Icelandic and international artists, with most exhibitions on view through July or August 2008.
Rooted in Iceland’;;s famous tradition of hospitality, a special opening weekend will celebrate the launch of the Festival, with receptions held at most venues, and featuring a one-day flight around the country to visit the exhibitions presented in the North and East. The program will end with a musical performance at the Blue Lagoon geothermal pool.
On the the concert events list are ninefold Grammy-winning jazz musician Wayne Shorter and the graceful Amercan diva, soprano Denyce Graves, both performing at Háskólabíó Concert Hall, and a grand scale concert with Amiina, Kippi and their friends in Wonderland.
Icelandic pop guru Jón Ólafsson has hand-picked a group of singers to perform songs to the lyrics of Icelandic poet Steinn Steinarr, and violinist Sigurbjörn Bernharðsson pays a tribute to composer Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson´s 70th birthday by performing a selection of his works. From Berlin comes the Hypno Theatre and performs a children´s show called Diamantina Deep, in co-operation with Icelandic School Concerts, not to mention Icelandic Bardi Jóhannsson and French Keren Ann, performing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The Reykjavik Arts Festival and the Bergen Internationl Arts Festival join hands with the Iceland Dance Company and Norwegian Carte Blanche to bring us a brand-new dance work, Ambra. From Guinea Bissau, we present West-Africa´s most popular band, Super Mama Djombo, who made their comeback in Iceland last winter by recording their new cd here, after a long exile from their homeland. The group´s first official concert in years will be at the Festival.
Several projects link visual arts and other genres, such as Inselhopping at the Reykjavik Art Museum, Hafnarhús, a concert featuring percussionist/visual artist Egill Sæbjörnsson. Last, but not least, there is Icelandic soprano Thóra Einarsdóttir´s critically acclaimed performance in the solo opera Anne Frank, from the Wiesbaden Opera House.