Iceland’s capital city is preparing for its annual Museum Night tomorrow, February 12, in which more than 30 museums all over the capital region will participate. The night will begin with a Love Walk around the Reykjavík Pond.
From last year’s Love Walk. Photo by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir.
At 6 pm, participants in the walk will gather at Austurvöllur square in front of the parliament where there will be short speeches about love, followed by a song performed by pop star Páll Óskar. Actress and writer Bergljót Arnalds and a brass band will lead the walk around the pond, as stated on visitreykjavik.is.
After the Love Walk, Mayor of Reykjavík Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir will formally open the Reykjavík Museum Night. The opening ceremony is a poem of lights created by Texan artist Bill Fitzgibbons of the Blue Star Art Center in San Antonio. The light poetry is created to a soundscape by vocal artist Sverrir Gudjónsson.
After the ceremony free buses will take visitors to all the participating museums, which offer free entrance at the occasion. This year, all the exhibitions and events have a “dream” theme.
Highlights include a sea monster tour, accordion dance and fortune tellers at the Reykjavík Maritime Museum, family workshop and Argentinean tango at Kjarvalsstadir, family workshop about the moon and space travel at Hafnarhús, dream readings at Árbaejarsafn and the Reykjavík Municipal Archives and a performance by troubadour KK at Gljúfrasteinn, the Halldór Laxness museum.
At the National Museum the night will begin with a screening of an Icelandic children’s film, Palli var einn í heiminum (“Palli was alone in the world”), at 7 pm, followed by dance and song and another film screening at 10 pm of Draumur um Draum (“Dream about Dream”) about the life and work of author Ragnheidur Jónsdóttir.
At the National Gallery the program includes an exhibition and fashion show by French artist Etienne de France, held in cooperation with Alliance Française as part of the Icelandtrain art project, which premiered during the Sequences Art Festival last year.
In the past years, Reykjavík Museum Night has been held in conjunction with the Winter Lights Festival but this year there will only be a Museum Night.
Click here for the full program in English.
