The annual Sequences Art Festival is coming up, running from October 30 to November 7 in Iceland’s capital. The program includes “cutting-edge” performance art with special emphasis on the “ephemeral nature of art” with reference to stage arts, dance and theater.
Performances, video art, art in public/urban spaces will be highlighted and combined to “create a dynamic cross-platform” through numerous live events in the city center; in art spaces, galleries and institutions.
“Taking up the vaudevillean stage, made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together, Sequences hopes to create a multifunctional stage as a rendezvous for visual and stage arts,” a press release states.
Vaudeville is considered “low-brow” entertainment and has had influence on contemporary pop culture.
Participating artists include Finnish performance artist Oblivia, Danish Soeren Dahlgaard, who presents a contemporary take on post-war Japanese performance art and Icelandic Sigurdur Gudjónsson, who intertwines discrete images, music and sound in his work.
French visual artist Etienne de France is planning two projects for the festival through his collaboration with Icelandic artist Berglind Jóna Hlynsdóttir: a collection of tourist brochures that will be displayed in the Reykjavík Tourist Information Center and the launch of a company called Icelandtrain through an interactive website.
Special emphasis will be placed on the work of Sequences 2009 Honorary Artist Magnús Pálsson. He studied theater design in the early 1950s which inspired his move into visual arts, books, theater pieces, audio works and teaching.
Pálsson will premiere a live performance event in collaboration with Pétur Zar Bragason and the Nýló choir Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús on the opening day of the festival with a repeat performance the following day, November 1.
Sequences also offers special side events it its program. These include a video screening event showcasing performative videos by artists such as The Icelandic Love Corporation, Curver Thoroddsen, a collaborative project by 16 Icelandic and Polish artists, and Sirkus, a film that sheds light on the performative nature of Kling & Bang gallery’s project for Frieze Art Fair in 2008.
The festival program also includes a night of open studio hosted by SIM-Seljavegur and lecture series will run alongside the program at the Nordic House in Reykjavík.
Held for the first time in Reykjavík in 2006, Sequences was founded by four artist-run galleries: The Living Art Museum, Kling & Bang Gallery, Gallery Dwarf and Gallery Bananananas, along with The Center for Icelandic Art.
Click here for further information on the festival and to learn more about its program.
