Please note that a workshop that was scheduled to take place on Tuesday October 24th has been cancelled for the Women’s Strike happening that same day.
A new date for the workshop will be announced soon.
Stand with women and non-binary people and let their voices be heard.
For more information on the Women’s Strike, see www.kvennafri.is.
Please note that Hafnarborg will be closed for installation from September 4th until September 14th. We would then like to invite you to the opening of our new exhibitions on Thursday September 14th at 8 p.m. Together we will explore Landscape for the Chosen Ones, Hafnarborg’s Autumn Exhibition 2023, curated by Eva Lín Vilhjálmsdóttir and Odda Júlía Snorradóttir, but this will be the thirteenth installation in Hafnarborg’s Autumn Exhibition Series, having been selected from proposals submitted by curators during an open call last year.
At Sindri Ploder’s exhibition, If I Were a Monster, in Hafnarborg’s lower gallery, guests will then enter into the artist’s own world of striking visuals, but earlier this year Sindri was named the artist of the festival Art Without Borders 2023. The exhibition is curated by Íris Stefanía Skúladóttir, artistic director of Art Without Borders.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this and hope to see you at the opening.
September 1st marks the beginning of a new concert season at Hafnarborg, featuring a host of outstanding musicians, as well as promising young performers. The Afternoon Concert series enters its fourth season with a concert by Kjalar Martinsson Kollmar next Friday at 6 p.m. and in the following week we welcome you to the first Midday Concert of the autumn, but the concert series has been part of the Hafnarborg programme since 2003, under the direction of pianist Antonía Hevesi. Later this autumn, we also invite you to attend a performance of contemporary music in the concert series Phonemes, dedicated to original compositions of the 20th and 21st century.
September 1st at 6 p.m.
Afternoon Concert
Kjalar Martinsson Kollmar and Band
September 5th at 12 p.m.
Midday Concert
Ívar Helgason
October 3rd at 12 p.m.
Midday Concert
Gissur Páll Gissurarson
October 8th at 8 p.m.
Phonemes: Remembrance
Berglind María Tómasdóttir and Júlía Mogensen
October 13th at 6 p.m. (new date)
Afternoon Concert
Hrafnhildur Magnea Ingólfsdóttir and Band
November 7th at 12 p.m.
Midday Concert
Bryndís Guðjónsdóttir
November 10th at 6 p.m.
Afternoon Concert
Los Bomboneros
December 5th at 12 p.m.
Midday Concert
Diddú
December 8th at 6 p.m.
Afternoon Concert
Kristjana Stefáns and Band
Please note that Hafnarborg will be closed on Monday July 24th due to necessary work on the drainage system of the building. We apologise for the inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you at the museum when this work is finished.
The museum will be open again as usual from Wednesday July 26th.
From its inception, The Hafnarborg Songfest has offered a master class for advanced singers. This year, the class takes place from June 19th until the 22nd, filling the museum with music and song for its duration. The class is held in Hafnarborg’s main gallery, starting in the morning and ending in the afternoon, so guests of the museum will be able to enjoy the singing practice during their visit of the current exhibitions. At the end of the course, the participants will perform at a special concert on Thursday June 22nd at 8 p.m. as part of The Songfest. This time, the instructor is renowned singer Kristinn Sigmundsson, with the support of pianist Matthildur Anna Gísladóttir, who will also accompany the singers at the concert.
For more information about The Hafnarborg Songfest, please visit the offical website at www.songhatid.com.
On this day 40 year ago, June 1st 1083, husband and wife Sverrir Magnússon and Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir gifted the town of Hafnarfjörður with their house at Strandgata 34, including their extensive art collection, establishing Hafnarborg – the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art.
For decades, the couple had run the Hafnarfjörður Pharmacy in the building that now houses the museum, which was also their home, but together they had amassed a large art collection and their wish was that both the house and the collection would pass onto the community, in the hopes of fostering the cultural landscape of Hafnarfjörður and providing a space for art exhibitions, concerts and related events.
To commemorate this, we invite guests to take a peak behind the scenes at the museum tomorrow, Friday evening, as we work on the installation of our new exhibitions and offer insights into the process of making an exhibition.
So feel free to join us for birthday cake, coffee and light drinks.
Everyone welcome.
On May 2nd, the last Midday Concert of the season took place in Hafnarborg, but the concert series has now been part of the Hafnarborg programme for twenty years.
We thank Valgerður Guðnadóttir for singing for us and our guests and we also thank pianist Antonía Hevesi for her work and dedication, but Antonía has been the artistic direction of the concert series from its inception.
We would also like to thank everyone who has performed at the concerts this season, as well as those who have made the concert series what it is for the past couple of decades, enriching the culture scene in Hafnarfjörður, by offering a free midday concert for all lovers of music.
We look forward to welcoming you at Hafnarborg in autumn when we begin the new season of Midday Concerts.
The Art Council of Hafnarborg has selected Elitist Landscape, as the autumn exhibition of the year 2023, from proposals that were submitted at the end of last year, but the winning proposal was submitted by curators Eva Lín Vilhjálmsdóttir and Odda Júlía Snorradóttir.
The participating artists will be announced at a later date.
This will be the thirteenth exhibition in Hafnarborg’s Autumn Exhibition Series, where the objective is to collaborate with different curators, who get the chance to submit their own proposals, allowing new voices be heard. The Director and Art Council of Hafnarborg then review the submissions and select the winning proposal each year.
We are proud to present the programme of the coming season of the Hafnarborg Midday Concert Series, in winter to spring 2023, but the concert series first started in 2003 and is therefore in its 20th year of operation. The first Midday Concert of the year is set to take place on February 7th at 12 p.m. To start the season, Erla Björg Káradóttir, soprano, will perform, accompanied by Antonía Hevesi, the artistic director of the concert series, on piano.
The programme of the Midday Concerts, until spring, is as follows:
February 7th
Erla Björg Káradóttir, soprano
March 7th
Bernadett Hegyi, soprano
April 4th
Sigríður Ósk Kristjánsdóttir, mezzosoprano
May 2nd
Valgerður Guðnadóttir, mezzosoprano
The Midday Concerts normally take place on the first Tuesday of each month during the wintertime. The concerts start promptly at noon and last for approximately half an hour. The doors open at 11:30 a.m. and the concerts are open to all, as long as seating is available. Entry is free.
Please note that the programme is subject to change.
Last year, Hafnarborg received a generous donation of massive concrete sculptures made by the artist Sóley Eiríksdóttir (1957-1994), born and raised in Hafnarfjörður. The works add to the museum’s existing collection of works by the artist, spanning Sóley’s short but dynamic career.
The works were bestowed upon the museum by Brynja Jónsdóttir, the daughter of Sóley and artist Jón Axel Björnsson, who made the formal donation last autumn, from which time an exhibition of Sóley’s works has been in preparation at Hafnarborg.
The exhibition will feature the recently acquired artworks, as well as works that were already part of the Hafnarborg Collection, belong to the collections of other museums or private collectors. Clay was Sóley’s medium of choice, but early on she mostly worked within the pottery tradition. Later, however, her imagery took on a life of its own in large, three-dimensional works, made from concrete.
The title of the exhibition is Amuse, curated by Aldís Arnardóttir and Aðalheiður Valgeirsdóttir.
Sóley Eiríksdóttir studied metalworking at the Technical College of Hafnarfjörður for a year after finishing her studies at the Flensborg Secondary School. In 1975, she then enrolled in the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts, first at the Department of Teaching before ultimately graduating from the Department of Pottery in 1981. Sóley exhibited widely in her short career, for example at the Reykjavík Art Museum, Hafnarborg, Gallerí Langbrók and the ASÍ Art Museum, as well as abroad, in the United States, Finland, Luxembourg, Canada and Germany.
