D’Arcy Wilson reads her creative text “Dismantling the Meadow” that opens with 19th century history of The Language of Flowers, the text being published in the accompanying catalogue to The Wildflower, Hafnarborg’s 2020 autumn exhibition. Questioning the meaning, sentiment and culture that Western thought assigns to plants and flora, she wanders through The Wildflower, stopping to notice and attempt translation of each individual work and artist. Her research, memories and personal experiences lead her to plots of suburban landscaping and tangles of wilderness where the rhododendron and its wild cousin, the rhodora, grow in her home on the east coast of Canada.

D’Arcy Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work considers the representation of nature in a Western context, lamenting colonial interactions with the wilderness. Her work has been presented across Canada, most recently at Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax, The Rooms Art Gallery, St. John’s, and the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, as well as a part of M:ST, Flotilla, and the Bonavista Biennale. She is the recipient of several awards, including a Sobey Art Award earlier this year. Wilson graduated with an MFA from the University of Calgary in 2008. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Program on the Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The Wildflower is a group exhibition of works by artists based in Iceland and Canada, curated by Becky Forsythe and Penelope Smart. The exhibition catalogue, in which D’Arcy’s text is published, is available in Hafnarborg’s museum shop. The exhibition will stand until November 8th, being temporarily closed to guests out of concern for public health.

Due to public health considerations, we have decided to stream Hanna Dóra Sturludóttir and Antonía Hevesi’s midday concert live online, both on Facebook and here on the website of Hafnarborg, as we can unfortunately not accommodate an audience in accordance with current assembly limits.

The live stream will start at 12 p.m. on Tuesday October 6th, as planned, and the concert will last for approximately half an hour, being accessible through the player here below. This recording will also be available for viewing online, once the concert has ended. A direct link for the stream can be found here.

We hope we will be able to welcome you back at our midday concerts in Hafnarborg before long.

Every Saturday, during the course of the exhibition An Urban Archive as an English Garden, a programme of live events will be presented, where composer Davíð Brynjar Franzson‘s collaborators engage with and activate the exhibition through the playing of live instruments, as well as with their own presence. The live performance will respond to and reflect on moments within the soundscape, a sonic garden, which guest can explore, alongside the performer, on their own terms in both time and space. The events take place twice during the day in the exhibition space, at 2:30 and 4 p.m., on the following dates:

August 29th
Júlía Mogensen, cellist
live performance in Hafnarborg

September 5th
Matt Barbier, trombonist
live stream from Los Angeles

September 12th
Russell Greenberg, percussionist
live stream from New York

September 19th
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, violinist
live performance in Hafnarborg

September 26th
Matt Barbier, trombonist
live stream from Los Angeles

October 3rd
Russell Greenberg, percussionist
live stream from New York

October 17th
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, violinist
live stream from Malmö

October 24th
Júlía Mogensen, cellist
live stream from Hafnarborg

On October 10th, Skerpla, a group of students at the music department of the Iceland University of the Arts, under the guidance of Berglind María Tómasdóttir, professor, will host their own live stream event in the space at Hafnarborg, working from the ideas and perspectives offered by Davíð.

We wish you all, near and far, a very Happy Icelandic National Day and bid you welcome to Hafnarborg, to celebrate with us.

On this occasion, we would like to share this video of renowned soprano Diddú, Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir, performing the lively aria “Je veux vivre” from the opera Roméo et Juliette by Gounod, accompanied by Antonía Hevesi, pianist and artistic director of the Hafnarborg Midday Concert Series.

The museum is open today from 12–5 p.m. and entry is free, as usual, but, in addition, live jazz music will be playing at the museum in the afternoon.

This month‘s Midday Concert can unfortunately not take place, due to current circumstances, despite the new guidelines for the ban on public gatherings that took effect yesterday. Then there will still be some disruption to our schedule here at Hafnarborg, mainly in regards to concerts and other big events.

Instead, we will continue to share things with you online, both music and art, and now we would like to share with you a wonderful musical piece, as renowned soprano Diddú, Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir, performs the aria “Casta diva” from the opera Norma by Bellini, accompanied by Antonía Hevesi, the artistic director of the Hafnarborg Midday Concert Series, on piano.

We look forward to sharing more art with you, both here on social media and in the real world, but the museum has now finally reopened its doors to guests.

In this video tour, Ágústa Kristófersdóttir talks about select works from the Hafnarborg Collection, all of which depict the town of Hafnarfjörður, though each in its own way. There, we see the town through the eyes of artists – including some of the leading artists of our nation – working in different times and in different media, such as painting, drawing, print and photography.

The works featured here are by Jón Hróbjartsson, Hörður Ágústsson, Nína Tryggvadóttir, Gunnlaugur Scheving, Greta Björnsson, Eggert F. Guðmundsson, Gunnar Hjaltason, Pétur Friðrik Sigurðsson, Jón Þorleifsson, Erla Stefánsdóttir, Árni B. Elfar, Spessi and Astrid Kruse Jensen.

In addition to this video tour, we have opened a special online exhibition on the website of Sarpur (only accessible in Icelandic, at this moment), where you can learn more about these works, as well as find information on other works in the Hafnarborg Collection.

Captions available in English and Icelandic.

On the occasion of the First Day of Summer, we share with you a little song, in the hopes of lifting up your spirits.

Here, Gissur Páll Gissurarson, tenor, sings the passionate aria “De’ miei bollenti spiriti” from La traviata by Verdi, with Antonía Hevesi, the artistic director of the Hafnarborg Midday Concert Series, playing the piano.

We wish all the friends of Hafnarborg a very happy summer and we look forward to seeing you at our museum in the coming months.

Ágústa Kristófersdóttir, Director of Hafnarborg, talks about the exhibition Silent Spring, by artists Hertta Kiiski, Katrín Elvarsdóttir and Lilja Birgisdóttir. The exhibition opened last January as a part of The Icelandic Photography Festival 2020 and the curator is Daría Sól Andrews.

In the exhibition, Lilja, Hertta and Katrín invoke a tender warmth towards nature, while calling attention to the effects of our wasteful practices on the earth. Working in the face of climate change, they then employ the photographic medium and a sculptural, sensory focus to environments which call for a nurturing attention.

The exhibition was extended until mid-May, given current circumstances, but since the museum is currently closed, we hope you will enjoy the exhibition here instead.

Captions available in English and Icelandic.

Unfortunately, this month‘s Midday Concert cannot go on, due to the ban on public gatherings, but we wish to share with you a song instead, to brighten up your day, so shortly before Easter.

Here, Gissur Páll Gissurarson, tenor, and Antonía Hevesi, pianist and artistic director of the Hafnarborg Midday Concert Series, perform the aria “Una furtiva lagrima” from the opera L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti.

We are looking forward to seeing you again at our Midday Concerts in the near future – when this too shall pass.

At the exhibition, works by artist Þórdís Jóhannesdóttir entered into dialogue with works by Ralph Hannam, an amateur photographer who was active in Iceland in the mid-twentieth century. Even though the exhibition may be over, you now get a chance to experience it online, through this tour, where Ágústa Kristófersdóttir, Director of Hafnarborg, talks about its foundation, the artistic process and select works in the exhibition.

We would like to thank everyone who visited Hafnarborg for the exhibition, while it was on view, and hope that everyone will enjoy seeing it here – both those of you who are seeing it for the first time and those who have seen it before. We would also like to urge you to draw inspiration from the artists’ approach and look for interesting angles in your surroundings, in your daily life.

Captions available in English and Icelandic.