29. August - 01. November 2009
This exhibition displays works by artists that have used the sea as an inspiration both as a natural phenomenon and way of life; the sea both takes and gives life. The works show the importance of the sea and how much impact it has had both physically and mentally on the nation. It is also a reflection on how our basic livelyhood began and still continues to be embeded in our language, thoughts, society and politics.
In Deep Water or lífróður (direct translation rowing for life) the title refers to a saying in Iceland and since the collapse of the banks this saying has been used frequently to describe the daily battles of companies, families and the society as a whole. The exhibition shows works by leading Icelandic contemporary artists.
The exhibition curators are Markús Þór Andrésson and Dorothée Kirch who also curated the Icelandic contribution to the Venice Biennale 2009, The End and the ''Stray Beacons", an art exhibition in four lighthouses around Iceland for the Reykjavik Art Festival in May 2009.
Art works by the following artists will be displayed:
Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Ásmundur Ásmundsson, Birgir Andrésson, Elías Hjörleifsson og Ólafur Elíasson, Erla S. Haraldsdóttir, Finnur Arnar Arnarson, Gjörningaklúbburinn, Guðjón Ketilsson,Gylfi Ægisson, Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson,
Hulda Hákon, Hlynur Hallsson, Ívar Valgarðsson, Kristinn E. Hrafnsson, Kristján Guðmundsson, Margrét H. Blöndal, Magnús Sigurðarson, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Ólafur Sveinn Gíslason, Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Sigtryggur Bjarni Baldvinsson, Unnar Örn Auðarson
In Deep Water
The sea and the self-consciousness of a nation in Icelandic contemporary art.This exhibition displays works by artists that have used the sea as an inspiration both as a natural phenomenon and way of life; the sea both takes and gives life. The works show the importance of the sea and how much impact it has had both physically and mentally on the nation. It is also a reflection on how our basic livelyhood began and still continues to be embeded in our language, thoughts, society and politics.
In Deep Water or lífróður (direct translation rowing for life) the title refers to a saying in Iceland and since the collapse of the banks this saying has been used frequently to describe the daily battles of companies, families and the society as a whole. The exhibition shows works by leading Icelandic contemporary artists.
The exhibition curators are Markús Þór Andrésson and Dorothée Kirch who also curated the Icelandic contribution to the Venice Biennale 2009, The End and the ''Stray Beacons", an art exhibition in four lighthouses around Iceland for the Reykjavik Art Festival in May 2009.
Art works by the following artists will be displayed:
Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Ásmundur Ásmundsson, Birgir Andrésson, Elías Hjörleifsson og Ólafur Elíasson, Erla S. Haraldsdóttir, Finnur Arnar Arnarson, Gjörningaklúbburinn, Guðjón Ketilsson,Gylfi Ægisson, Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson,
Hulda Hákon, Hlynur Hallsson, Ívar Valgarðsson, Kristinn E. Hrafnsson, Kristján Guðmundsson, Margrét H. Blöndal, Magnús Sigurðarson, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Ólafur Sveinn Gíslason, Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Sigtryggur Bjarni Baldvinsson, Unnar Örn Auðarson
Introduction from the curators:
In recent years it has been remarkable how much closer the nation seems to regard the sea than in earlier years. The sea is discussed in both the political arena and the media, it comes up in our everyday parlance, including public discussion, it also plays a role on the stage and in people’s pastimes, to name a few examples. There once was a time when little else was discussed besides the “resource” so integral to the nation’s economic prosperity in the latter half of the 20th century. Obviously that all changed as the economy diversified and Icelanders turned their gaze away from the oceans. But when last year brought a swift end to the nation’s good fortune it was as if the tape had been rewound and Iceland found itself returning to what it has long known best: the sea. It is time to examine what meaning it holds for the nation nowadays.
Visual artists react to their immediate environment, both explicitly and implicitly, and the sea has long been an influence in Icelandic artistic creation. This selection comprises work mainly from the last decade, including some pieces created for this exhibition. They reflect a shift in mentality that has taken place, the external reality that consists in the natural phenomenon itself, in the sea as a resource, but also as a symbol for a sort of internal human reality.
The exhibition’s title, Lífróður (an Icelandic word literally meaning “life row”, to row with all your might or to take on a problem with everything you’ve got), literally refers to sea and seafaring, but today the concept is most often used figuratively in everyday speech. It conveys desperation but also hope. In the talk that has come along with the consequences of the financial collapse last autumn and the ensuring crisis, Icelanders have revived their old self-image as remote islanders in the northern seas. In an unforgettable address to the nation in October, the prime minister said, among other things in his opening statements, “Large, wealthy banks on both sides of the Atlantic have fallen prey to the crisis, and the governments of many countries are now rowing with all their might to save what will be saved here at home.” He used countless other metaphors based on natural catastrophe, dangers at sea and fishermen, which has since been echoed in the public discourse that followed. The ship of state has been shipwrecked! But does the sea surrounding the country bear any more semblance of reality for the nation than the convoluted world of finance that ran the ship aground?
At the same time people seem to have taken a keen interest in sea swimming like never before; there are debates as to whether sea mammals ought to be hunted or simply enjoyed from a distance; and now there are prospects that the ocean floor may hide untapped caches of oil. Harnessing the new fishing stocks, the submarine cable, coastal sailings and Eimskip Ísland ehf. – all of this has been buzzing in our ears along with the biggest issue surrounding the sea: Iceland’s membership in the European Union and what repercussions it may have on the fishing industry. All this discussion that has blown up in the recent year leads to questions about to what extent the sea represents the nation’s old values and whether there might be something new hidden in its midst? “Of our fatherland, half is sea” Jón Magnússon writes in his book of hymns. For a long time the ocean has represented an obstacle to journeys outside the country, but it has also been the island’s source of food and shaped the way of life in the country. But the heyday of the seafarer is long gone, and the ocean presents little hindrance in travel nowadays. The connection to the sea has been severed—or has it? Upon inspection we still find manifestations of the sea far and wide, in our speech and writing, and even in contemporary imagery.
In collaboration with the Icelandic Centre for Ethnology & Folklore as well as the National Film Archive of Iceland, Hafnarborg presents a series of events in connection with this exhibition. On September 5 the Centre for Ethnology & Folklore will hold a seminar on the connection between the sea and Iceland’s national image and at Bæjarbíó cinema in Hafnarfjörður there will be screenings of documentary and feature films that address the sea. The exhibition itself features over 30 visual artists from all walks of life.
Dorothée Kirch og Markús Þór Andrésson
The exhibition is in collaboration with the National Film Archive of Iceland, Icelandic Centre for Ethnology and Folklore and is supported by the Harbour of Hafnarfjordur which celebrates its centenary this year. 