There is good wheelchair access to Hafnarhús and wheelchairs are available at the gallery.

BUS: 1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 55

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (LT)
Vaiva Grainytė (LT)
Lina Lapelytė (LT)

Imagine a beach. The burning sun, sunscreen and bright bathing suits and sweaty palms and legs. Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance. The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound. The crinkling of plastic bags whirling in the air, their silent floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat. Then a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them: the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth, a gasp.

Described as “a lament to the eclipse of the world … an astonishing performance” (The Guardian), the opera Sun & Sea took the 2019 Venice Biennale by storm as the Lithuanian pavilion, winning the coveted Golden Lion. Arriving at the Reykjavík Art Museum (Hafnarhús) for the Reykjavík Arts Festival following its triumph, this durational installation/performance will surprise, mesmerize and blur the lines between art forms. The Reykjavík performance features black sand from Iceland’s coastline.

The performance loops continuously, for four hours each day. The audience is free to come and go as they please.

www.sunandsea.lt
contact: info@sunandsea.lt

artists: 
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė

Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti
Commissioner: Rasa Antanavičiūtė
Honorary Commissioner: Jean-Baptiste Joly

Imagine a beach – you within it, or better: watching from above – the burning sun, sunscreen and bright bathing suits and sweaty palms and legs. Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance. The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound (on this particular beach, not elsewhere). The crinkling of plastic bags whirling in the air, their silent floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat. Then a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them: the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth, a gasp.

Sun & Sea (Marina)  - Venice 2019 official trailer

Artists: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė
Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti
Technical Director: Lique van Gerven
Sound Engineer: Romuald Galiauskas
Tour coordinator and Stage Manager: Erika Urbelevič
Visual Identity: Goda Budvytytė
English libretto: Rimas Uzgiris
Originally produced by: Neon Realism
Producer: Aušra Simanavičiūtė
Co-commissioned by: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Akademie Schloss Solitude Goethe-Institut, Münchner Kammerspiele, National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, The Momentary, Arkansas and Reykjavik Art Museum.

Would you like to join us on the beach? 
We are now looking for extras of all shapes and sizes to lie on the beach with the artists, doing as little as possible. Would you like to take part? 

Sign up here!

Sun & Sea is in collaboration with Reykjavik Art Museum

4 June 2022, 12:00-16:00
5 June 2022, 12:00-16:00

Golden Lion at 2019 Venice Biennale - One of last year’s most talked-about art events in the world

Harpa is very accessible for wheelchair users, with three lifts going straight from the basement car park up to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th floors. Special wheelchair seating areas must be pre-booked at Harpa. Hearing loops are available in reception. Seats for guests accompanied by assistance dogs must be pre-booked at Harpa.

Hilmar Thordarson (IS)
Halldis Rønning (NO)
Thorbjorg Jonsdottir (IS)

Black Obsidian is a unique performance that invites the audience to take an immersive journey into an imaginary natural landscape. Crossing boundaries and intertwining music, audio, dance, performance, theatre, visual art and light, the artists create a vibrant palette that is a true ode to nature. Contrasting atmospheres, energies and movements performed by singers and musicians are enhanced by the use of an electronic conductor‘s glove that can create and manipulate sound in real time. Music and movements emerge from performers through improvisation and intuition. Moving beyond a traditional understanding of opera, the artists use abstracted natural elements to create a flow from the deep dark unknown into unexpected places of vulnerability and beauty.

Guests are invited to move around during the performance and allow their own imagination to influence their experience of the performance. Created by a visionary and critically lauded team of artists, Hrafntinna/Sort Glimmer offers festival guests an experience unlike any other.

Halldis Rønning - Composer & conductor
Hilmar Thordarson - Composer & electronics
Thorbjörg Jónsdottir - Video design

In creative collaboration with:

Karen Eide Bøen - Choreography
Niels Thibaud Girerd - Staging
Anton Kroyer - Lights
Aron Þór Arnarsson - Sounds
Helga Lúðvíksdóttir - Costumes
Ísak Freyr Helgason - Visual designer

Oddur A. Jónsson - baritone
Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir - soprano

Guðni Franzson - clarinets
Þuríður Jónsdóttir - flutes
Sigurður Halldórsson - cello
Hrafnkell Örn Guðjónsson (Keli) - percussion


Jostein Stalheim - accordion
Guro Skumsnes Moe - doublebass & voice
Else Olsen Storesund - piano


Tabula Rasa Vocal Ensemble:
Sigrun Jørdre - soprano
Zsuzsa Zseni - mezzosoprano
Tord Kalvenes - tenor
Arild Rohde - tenor


William Hjort-Johansen- Electronic sound assistant 
Egill Kristbjörnsson - Video assistant
Óli Starri - Video assistant
Friðfinnur Sigurðsson - sound assistant

Hair and make-up:
Lilja Dís Smáradóttir
Lísa María Markúsdóttir
Kolbrún Vignisdóttir
Maren Anna
Hera Hlín

Stage:
Ólafur Haukur Matthíasson, Snorri Arnarson, Hugi Guðmundsson


Production:
Gunnbjørg Johannessen - Producer
Kristinn Brynjar Pálsson - Event manager Harpa
Dýri Jónsson - Producer

Hrafntinna header 3.mp4

The area around Elliðaárstöð has been refurbished completely, offering good access for wheelchairs.
BUS: 3, 11, 12, 16, 17

On the final day of the festival, the area around Elliðaárstöð will be transformed into a truly wondrous world where anything can happen!

Mysterious creatures will pop up amidst the trees, dancing along to live music. Strange sounds of S.L.Á.T.U.R. illuminate the area. Masked members of the Cloud Factory and the agile acrobats of Hringleikur surprise guests with goosebump-inducing acts that will entertain all ages. And Þykjó invites everyone into their workshop of fantastic birds. Enticing scents from food trucks will whet our appetites as we enjoy a range of events in the gorgeous outdoors.

The Akureyri Art Museum offers good access for wheelchairs.

Agnieszka Sosnowska (US), Christopher Taylor (UK), Katrín Elvarsdóttir (IS), Páll Stefánsson (IS), Spessi (IS) 

The exhibition Black and White at the Akureyri Art Museum presents the works of a diverse group of artists who use the medium of black and white photography in powerful ways. The subjects span a wide spectrum: landscape, people, stories, places and atmosphere. These five photographers play around with opposites and threats, intimacy and care as well as representations of daily life, adventures, culture, the unknown and the familiar.

The artists whose work makes up the exhibition are Agnieszka Sosnowska, Christopher Taylor, Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Páll Stefánsson and Spessi. They each in their own way possess a particularly strong command of the black and white form and the depth, light and shadow this medium offers. When the work of these very different artists comes together, a black and white magic happens. The exhibition extends through five rooms in the museum and will be on display until the autumn.

The exhibition is curated by Hlynur Hallsson, Director of the Akureyri Art Museum.

2 June - 11 September 2022
Opening hours:
12:00 - 17:00

Harpa is very accessible for wheelchair users, with three lifts going straight from the basement car park up to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th floors. Special wheelchair seating areas must be pre-booked at Harpa. Hearing loops are available in reception. Seats for guests accompanied by assistance dogs must be pre-booked at Harpa.

BUS: 1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 55

Emilíana Torrini (IS)
The Colorist Orchestra (BE)

"Emiliana meets her orchestral match” (Uncut Magazine)"

Emilíana Torrini and The Colorist Orchestra take to the Eldborg stage in Harpa at the Reykjavík Arts Festival. Their musical collaboration is a truly enchanting, colourful and vibrant experience not to be missed. 

Belgian band The Colorist Orchestra have garnered praise for their original and dynamic approach to arranging and performing music by various artists. In recent years Emilíana Torrini, one of Iceland’s most diverse and talented musical artists, has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the band which has given new life to her beloved songs. These musicians are now working on their second album together, Racing the Storm, as an identity with its own aural uniqueness emerges. 

**** The Guardian - “A vibrant, colourful collection of classical and contemporary collisions”

**** The Wall Street Journal - “Enchanting”

**** MOJO - “Rousing, otherworldly, outlandish"

ET.mp4

Emilíana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra

Gerðarsafn offers good wheelchair access. It is recommended that wheelchair users take the main entrance on the upper level.

BUS: 1, 2, 4, 28, 35, 36

Katrín Gunnarsdóttir (IS)
Eva Signý Berger (IS)
Baldvin Þór Magnússon (IS)

ALDA is a poignant installation that erodes the boundaries between dance and visual arts. In ALDA, choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir draws upon the history of women's collective physical labour, in particular its relation to repetitive motions and song, to generate an event of intimate female assembly, convergence and coalescence.

The driving force behind choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir's current work has been the creation of movement language and imagery from softness, sensitivity, ever-changing movement and the integration of bodies with their environment. This piece is the culmination of many years of collaboration between the choreographer and designer Eva Signý Berger where art forms merge to create a rhythmic wave of experience.

When translated as WAVE, ALDA not only reflects on the form of movement but also refers to time and history, the old and the emerging new.

Created by: Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Eva Signý Berger, Baldvin Þór Magnússon. 
Dancers: Aðalheiður Halldórsdóttir, Anaïs Barthe, Halla Þórðardóttir, Heba Eir Kjeld, Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir, Snædís Lilja Ingadóttir, Sólbjört Sigurðardóttir, Védís Kjartansdóttir.
Partners: Gerðarsafn, Multiplie Dance Festival & DansiT, (Throndheim), Finlayson Art Area (Tampere). 

Hallgrímskirkja is accessible to wheelchair users.

BUS: 1, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 55

Hugi Guðmundsson (IS), Schola Cantorum (IS), Hörður Áskelsson (IS), Oslo Sinfonietta (NO), Berit Norbakken (NO)


World premiere of a new oratorio by composer Hugi Guðmundsson.


The Gospel of Mary is a new and magnificent oratorio by Hugi Guðmundsson, one of Iceland's foremost contemporary composers. Nila Parly and Niels Brunse's libretto is largely based on a 5th century eponymous sacred text, believed to have been kept secret since it jarred with the Christian orthodoxy of those times. It is an unconventional and progressive interpretation of Christ's message as a path to inner wisdom, rejecting death and suffering as ways to achieve eternal life. The gospel hints at Mary Magdalene having been an apostle, a truly volatile idea. This ancient gospel strongly resonates with our modern times, while the composer elevates it into a timeless space.

The work is performed by a group of outstanding musicians: Schola Cantorum, Oslo Sinfonietta and Berit Norbakken, conducted by Hörður Áskelsson who commissioned the oratorio on behalf of the Friends of the Arts Society, original commissions being at the heart of the society's work. Berit Norbakken is one of Norway's best-known sopranos and has performed around the world, including in the Sydney Opera House and Tokyo Opera Palace.


Hugi Guðmundsson is one of the foremost representatives of Icelandic contemporary music, and an increasingly important name on the Nordic music scene. He was nominated twice for the Nordic Council Music Prize, including for the critically acclaimed opera Hamlet in Absentia. Guðmundsson is educated as a composer at Reykjavik College of Music and Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied with Bent Sørensen, Niels Rosing-Schow and Hans Abrahamsen. He took his second master's degree at the Sonology Institute in The Hague, in electronic music and computer music. Guðmundsson is particularly known for his a cappella works, but has also written music for solo instruments and orchestra. In recent years, major works have become a larger part of his production, both concerts and opera, resulting in several awards and praise from critics.

Hörður Áskelsson is an award-winning conductor and organist, originally from Akureyri in northern Iceland. Áskelsson began as cantor in Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik in 1982. He established several choirs that achieved international recognition, including the Schola Cantorum, which today is one of Iceland's leading chamber choirs. He is also the man behind the Festival of the Sacred Arts and Friends of the Arts Society. The Icelandic conductor has received several music awards at home and abroad, and was awarded the Knight's Cross from the Icelandic Falcon Order for his work.

Schola Cantorum was established in 1996 by Hallgrimskirkja's cantor Hörður Áskelsson, who is still the conductor of the choir. In addition to a repertoire of Renaissance and Baroque music, Schola Cantorum performs a great deal of contemporary music, and has premiered many works by contemporary Icelandic composers. The choir was named the official music ensemble of the city of Reykjavik in 2006, won awards in choral championships in France and Italy, and was nominated for the Nordic Music Prize. They have also collaborated with Hague International Baroque Orchestra, as well as the singer Björk and the band Sigur Rós.

Oslo Sinfonietta is Norway's oldest active contemporary music ensemble. The ensemble consists of freelance musicians and members of some of Norway's most prominent orchestras, such as the Oslo Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Norwegian National Opera Orchestra and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Christian Eggen is conductor and artistic director. Oslo Sinfonietta performs regularly at Norwegian and international festivals and collaborates with a number of leading composers. In autumn 2015, Oslo Sinfonietta was awarded the Critics' Prize for the project Lachenmann! from June the same year.

Berit Norbakken is among the elite of Norwegian sopranos. In addition to being chosen often as a soloist in oratorios, passions and masses, she has held several solo concerts at a number of festivals in Norway. In recent years she has also performed in operas with great success, most recently in a new stage production of Bach's St John Passion, directed by Calixto Bieito, at Theatro Arriaga in Bilbao. She is a regular soloist with leading orchestras and conductors at major concert venues, such as the Sydney Opera House and Tokyo Opera City Hall with conductors such as Robert King, Daniel Reuss, Erik Nielsen, Mikhael Pletnev, Andreas Spering, Olof Boman and Ottavio Dantone.

Niels Brunse is a writer and translator. He has translated over 200 works from English, German and Russian, including a wide range of plays by classical and modern playwrights, primarily Shakespeare, but also Chekhov, Kleist, Pinter, Beckett, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, Tennessee Williams and others. Brunse has written novels, short stories, song lyrics and drama, and recently finished a complete re-translation of Shakespeare's plays. He has received several literary prizes, including the honorary prize from the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation and the Literature Prize from Weekendavisen.

Nila Parly is a librettist and opera dramaturg. Since 2005, she has participated in a number of productions, including at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen. Parly was a playwright in the production of Niels Marthinsen's Skriftestolen (The Pulpit) at the Jutland Opera in 2007, which received the Reumert Prize as "Best Musical Theatre" the same year. Nila Parly is also a trained opera singer, and entitled her doctoral dissertation Vocal Victories: Richard Wagner’s Female Characters from Senta to Kundry at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. 

The exhibition is located in Pósthússtræti by Austurvöllur, with good access to the exhibits.

BUS: 1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 55

Hrafn Hólmfríðarson Jónsson (Krummi) (IS)

Bene Fits is a compelling and intimate work of photography by Krummi, dealing with the reality of being disabled and living in poverty in the 21st century Icelandic welfare state – of a deprived existence in one of the world‘s wealthiest countries. Bene Fits places the personal alongside the socio-economic, creating an experience that stirs us, sparks reflection and offers a new vision. The work starkly underlines the interplay between market and welfare system in a society where happiness is said to lie in increased purchasing power. Where does that leave those of us who cannot take part in the consumer frenzy?

Krummi was born in Reykjavík in 1990. He graduated from the School of Photography in early 2021 and has since gained praise for his atmospheric and sensitive photography. His work has been exhibited at Gallerí Port, Ásmundarsalur, the Reykjavík Museum of Photography and at the Copenhagen Photo Festival.

Krummi‘s photographs will be displayed in Pósthússtræti by Austurvöllur throughout the summer.

The exhibition is in collaboration with the City of Reykjavik.

Reykjavík Arts Festival will next take place 1-19 June 2022.

Reykjavík Arts Festival hosts outstanding artistic creations from all corners of the world while also nurturing a powerful and vibrant relationship with its audiences, widening the circle to include as many as possible so that they may enjoy the arts on their own terms.

Reykjavík Arts Festival celebrates diversity and prioritises accessibility and respect for the environment in all decision making. Programming is driven by courage, professionalism, joy and big thinking.

Eyrarrósin
Award
2023

Welcome to Reykjavik Arts Festival!

News