Reykjavik Arts Festival will take place 30 May-14 June 2026.

Ragnheiður Maísól holds a BA degree in Fine Art and an MA in Applied Ethnology. Since 2013, she has worked in diverse cultural production alongside her own artistic practice and is one of the founders of MurMur Productions. She was Artistic Director of List án landamæra from 2017 to 2019, Managing Director of Dark Music Days in 2021 and Flipp Festival in 2022, and worked in marketing for DesignMarch in 2022 and 2023. She has mostly worked within the performing art field, having produced over 20 independent theatre works, including Club Romantica, the opera KOK, Sæskrímslin, the opening piece of the 2024 Reykjavík Arts Festival, and Innkaupapokinn.

Jón Haukur is an artist and cultural manager from Akureyri who has been active in the arts since 2010. He studied percussion and sound engineering in Iceland, at the University of the Arts in Havana, and at SAE Institute in Berlin, and is currently completing an MA in Cultural Management at Bifröst University. He is the founder of the festival Mannfólkið breytist í slím, one of the organizers of the Boreal Screendance Festival, and has worked as a project manager for summer festivals for the municipality of Akureyri. In his creative career, Jón Haukur has focused on drumming and percussion, as well as composition, recording and music production, sound design, and event organization. He has also performed contemporary dance and live art.

The festival warmly welcomes them to the team and looks forward to the collaboration.

The Reykjavík Arts Festival Team Expands

With great anticipation, the National Gallery of Iceland and the Reykjavík Arts Festival announce that on the festival's opening day, May 30, 2026, exhibitions by Björk and James Merry will open at the museum. 

The exhibitions Ummyndlingar (Metamorphlings) and echolalia will take over all four galleries of the National Gallery of Iceland and will run throughout the summer until September 20, 2026.

James Merry : Metamorphlings

Metamorphlings is the first museum retrospective of the artist’s work. Comprising over 80 artworks, the exhibition offers a window into the evolution of Merry’s artistic output over the past decade. During this time, he has developed a body of work centered on the mask – operating as a conduit for transformation, a catalyst for performance, and a portal through which identity can mutate. The exhibition focuses on the moment of metamorphosis when form and self are fluid. 

The masks on view showcase Merry’s craftsmanship, which uniquely blends traditional techniques with contemporary, avant-garde expressions. Visitors encounter works in a range of mediums: embroidery, metalwork, 3D printing, jewelry, and interactive digital displays. Collectively, these works – the Metamorphlings – form a family of shape-shifting creations that can offer a deeper insight into Merry’s unending fascination with the natural world, as well as his abiding interest in archaeology and ancient ritual.

Many of the masks included in the exhibition were created for Björk Guðmundsdóttir as part of their long-standing artistic collaboration. The exhibition will also include commissions made for other notable collaborators, among them Tilda Swinton and Iris van Herpen. While many of these works have appeared in live performances and high-fashion contexts, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to engage with them as standalone artworks. 

The National Gallery presents echolalalia, an exhibition of works by Björk, the visionary singer, songwriter, performer, and poet, whose work over the past five decades has consistently pushed beyond conventional musical boundaries, interweaving art, nature, and technology with restless experimentation. Echolalia focuses on Björk as the creative force behind multimedia projects she has developed in collaboration with communities of musicians, artists, designers, dancers, filmmakers, and studio technicians. In three immersive installations, the public is given a rare opportunity to engage intimately with works of phenomenal visual, aural, and emotional depth.

The first gallery contains a new installation pulled from Björk’s forthcoming album. The work offers an introduction to the latest chapter of the artist’s ongoing explorations of transformation and collaboration. 

Two elegiac works each command their own galleries. Ancestress and Sorrowful Soil honor Björk’s mother, environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who passed away in 2018. Released alongside Björk’s 2022 album Fossora, composed and arranged by Björk, the works are presented at the museum on a theatrical scale. 

Ancestress reckons with the cyclical nature of life. Set in a remote valley in Iceland, the lamentation is staged as a ritualistic procession of musicians and dancers, including Björk herself, who is accompanied by her son, Sindri Eldon in the chorus. The film was made in close collaboration with many of Björk’s longstanding creative partners, including the filmmaker Andrew Thomas Huang, and James Merry, co-creative director with Björk, and designer of the masks and ritual objects that adorn the musicians.

The polyphonic 9-part choral work Sorrowful Soil is a requiem expressing the loss of the mother as a life force. The oval-shaped video, directed by Viðar Logi and Björk as creative director, speaks to both human and geological time, filmed at the site of the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano. Thirty speakers arrayed through the gallery each transmit a single voice from the Hamrahlíð choir, conducted by Þorgerður Ingólfsdóttir. As one walks through the gallery, the experience moves between singular and synergistic voices, invoking a sense of humanity that is at once individual and collective.

Björk and James Merry open exhibitions at the National Gallery of Iceland 

The annual meeting of Reykjavík Arts Festival Council of Representatives was held at Höfði on Wednesday, 5 November. The Council of Representatives consists of professional associations of artists and cultural institutions from across the country.

The Mayor of Reykjavík and the Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education alternate as chair and vice-chair. This year, Mayor Heiða Björg Hilmisdóttir served as Chair of the Council, with Minister Logi Einarsson as Vice-Chair.

The meeting was opened by the Mayor, who then handed the floor to Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Chair of the board of Reykjavík Arts Festival, to deliver the Board’s annual report. Katrín represents the city of Reykjavík on the board and serves alongside Sigtryggur Magnason, the Minister’s representative and Vice-Chair, and Tryggvi M. Baldursson, who represents the Council of Representatives.

Lára Sóley Jóhannsdóttir, the festival’s Artistic Director, presented the draft program for the next Reykjavík Arts Festival, which will take place from 30 May to 14 June, 2026.

“The Council of Representatives provides vital support. It’s valuable to be able to present parts of the upcoming festival program, share new directions, and receive feedback from the owners and representatives of the country’s leading cultural institutions and associations,” said Lára.

The festival’s new Executive Director, Tinna Grétarsdóttir, presented the 2024 annual accounts along with the financial statements and the proposed 2025–2026 budget. The festival’s financial position remains strong, with this year’s results in line with expectations.

At the close of the meeting, the Minister addressed attendees, emphasizing the importance of culture and the arts in shaping social discourse and identity. Following his remarks, the Mayor adjourned the meeting and invited guests to tour Höfði.

Annual Meeting of the council of representatives 

Eyrarrósin, a recognition for outstanding cultural projects outside the capital area, was presented for the seventeenth time on Sunday 16 May.

Handbendi receives the Eyrarrósin Award 2021

Handbendi receives the Eyrarrósin Award 2021

More news

The Reykjavík Arts Festival Team Expands

Björk and James Merry open exhibitions at the National Gallery of Iceland

Annual Meeting of the council of representatives