“An artist’s archive is inevitably personal; an unedited history hidden away and tucked between the pages of an otherwise organized order of things. Unfinished or incomplete ideas hinting towards the ongoing process of creativity surface in the immediacy of the material and the mark of the artist´s accidental habits and gestures. Access to this intimate parallel allows our own imaginations to run wild in the freedom of Ólafur´s world. In the process it becomes possible to continue history by adding footnotes and rearrangement. The things left behind become moments anew. The past is pulled into the present. And the black and white recording is seen in colour again.

Wandering through the material has been a joint venture with the artist that has stood us alongside those audience members in 1978. The relevancy of his works and archival memory have enabled us to gaze upon Ólafur as he stood where the grass grew, or collaborated with the wild Arctic Terns. When he somersaulted “out and about in the mountains”, and buried his head under the moss-covered landscape, crashed through the glass, and rolled himself up in dandelions, paint and smoke with the dead-end rainbow. In his endless curiosity, sentimentality and unshakable romance with nature and his environment, his view through the lens, the ritualism, and his resonating lightness, humor and adventure. Sorting through the piles that assemble the Ólafur Lárusson Archive has been full of echoing black and white rainbows and moments of dust sparkles glittering gold in the passed and blazing sunlight.”

To book a school visit or guided tour please follow here.

For further questions and to inquire about making a special appointment please contact collection manager Becky Forsythe at archive(at)gamla.nylo.is.

Please note that although we do our best to fulfill requests, it is not always possible to so without proper advance and we ask kindly that special requests be made with that consideration.

The Living Art Museum in Breiðholt is located at 13-21 Völvufell, 111 Reykjavík.

“Ólafur Lárusson initially used photography as a recording device, a way of documenting his performance art – although on occasion photography was a more integral element of these performances or environments. His later involvement with photography has, however, effectively subverted this use of the medium.

Now, the photograph functions not as witness, but as the very space within – or upon – which the performance takes place”.
(Jan-Erik Lundström, European Photography, 1988)

The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir and is located at Svalbarðsströnd in Eyjafjörður.

In the collection there is work after 323 self-taught and educated artists, in whole counting nearly 6000 artworks. Within the museum there is also a specific collection department, Kikó Korriró-stofa, where 120-130,000 works by Þórður Guðmundur Valdimarsson are preserved.

The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum is known within the art museums in Iceland to collect and exhibit work by outsider artists and educated artists equally and offers a wide range in the exhibitions held at the museum. Traditional folk art and progressive contemporary art are exhibited inclusively, with the goal of The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum focused on quality and sincerity.

Further information can be found on the museum´s website: www.safnasafnid.is
For further inquiries: 461-4066 / safngeymsla(at)simnet.is