You are cordially invited to the opening in Árbæjarsafn, Friday, May 30th at 5pm.
Erla Silfá Þorgrímsdóttir, Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir, Sæmundur Þór Helgason & Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson. Anna Hrund Másdóttir, Arna Óttarsdóttir, Arnar Ásgeirsson & Leifur Ýmir Eyjólfsson.
The exhibition and publication that is also being celebrated on this day, derives its contents and inspiration from the artist-run Gallery Suðurgata 7 that ran in Reykjavik´s center from 1977-1982 and now stands in Árbæjarsafn. The gallery group consisted of emerging artists and during its time left a significant impact on the local art scene with its dynamic program and the publication of the art-magazine Svart á hvítu [Black on White]
Four emerging artists have now been invited to show their work for the exhibition; Erla Silfá Þorgrímsdóttir, Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir, Sæmundur Þór Helgason and Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, using site-specific emphasis. Four additional artists have also been selected to infiltrate the historical displays that precede the exhibition in the museum, Anna Hrund Másdóttir, Arna Óttarsdóttir, Arnar Ásgeirsson and Leifur Ýmir Eyjólfsson.
The project creates a point where two dissimilar institutions are able to meet, the Living Art Museum and the Reykjavík City Museum. The former keeps documents correlating to the history of Gallery Suðurgata 7 in its Archive of Artist Initiatives, while the latter preserves the building itself, relocated in one piece in 1983 to Árbæjarsafn, where its history dating back to the turn of the century is laid out.
The project is done in association with the Reykjavik Arts festival.
Duration 31st May – 31st August
Curators Unnar Örn Jónsson & Heiðar Kári Rannversson
Project management Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir & Bergsveinn Þórsson
The exhibition and movie Time and Time and Again is part of Reykjavík Arts Festival 2014. During the festival a programme of performance and video works will be held at the museum and a new video by Hreinn will be added to the exhibition.
Thursday 22 May a video work by Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Correspondance in Red and Green, will be added to the exhibition at the Living Art Museum in Skúlagata 28, 101 Reykjavík.
Saturday 31 May 17:00 Programme of a happening by Magnús Logi Kristinsson, one of the three characters in the movie, with additional new video works by Hreinn. Magnús Logi lives and works in Finland and will visit Reykjavík during the festival.
Thursday 5 June 20:00 – Finisage. Lecture and discussion on the film and exhibition Time and Time and Again. Participants will be Ingibjörg Magnadóttir, Oddný Eir Ævarsdóttir and Huldar Breiðfjörð.
The film Time and Time and Again reflects the life and art of Hreinn Friðfinnsson, one of his generation’s most admired artists.
In this fifty-minute film, the directors, Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir and Markús Þór Andrésson, approach the subject in an unconventional way, where the borders between reality and fiction are dissolved. Key works from the artist’s career are used as inspiration for an exciting narrative where science’s search for truth and the urge to create are set against one another. The film is shown at hourly intervals in its own special space at the Living Art Museum, and an exhibition of works by the artist is in the main gallery.
The exhibition reflects the artist’s complex experiments in handling impermanence and capturing infinity in time and space. The exhibition comprises both older works which have not been publicly displayed for many years as well as other more well-known pieces. In addition, brand new pieces will be exhibited, especially created for the Living Art Museum’s unique tiled floor. The museum itself plays a large part in the film as some of it was shot in its storage areas.
Kati Outinen, the highly acclaimed Finnish actress, plays the part of Aika, who works at the Time Laboratory. It is her job to oversee the progress of experiments where, in their youth, twin brothers were moved to differing locations in order to measure the progress of time in conjunction with the proximity of the Earth’s gravity.
Magnús Logi Kristinsson plays the brother who was raised high in the mountains of Iceland, while Hreinn Friðfinnsson himself plays the twin who was brought up by the sea in Amsterdam. The experiment far exceeds expectations as it seems that decades separate the brothers. A problem arises when Aika decides to bring the twins together for the first time, as Time is unpredictable.
The exhibition Time and Time and Again at the Living Art Museum is from 5 April – 5 June and is the last exhibition at Skúlagata 28, 101 Reykjavík.
The Living Art Museum will move its collection and archives to a new location by the end of May 2014.
The board will announce new opening hours as soon as the moving has been completed.
The new facilities are in Völvufell 13-21, 111 – the upper east side of Reykjavík, Breiðholtið, and consist of 400m2 space in the vicinities of the local swimming pool, Breiðholt College and Fab Lab Innovative Centre.
Over the next years the museum will store the collection in Breiðholtið, which comprises around 2,000 works, along with the main archives: the Archive of Nýló, the Archive of Artist-Run Initiatives and the Performance Archives.
The board will put up two exhibitions per year, with works from the collection and provide guided tours about the museum and collection. Nýló will also provide a research and study room for those committed to specific projects concerning the museum.
