Thursday August 28th at 8 p.m., we warmly welcome you to the opening of two new exhibitions at Hafnarborg. This time, we present this year’s Autumn Exhibition, Total Babes, curated by Jasa Baka and Petra Hjartardóttir, and You Are Here: From Uppsala to Hafnarfjörður, Hafnarfjörður to Uppsala, a collaborative exhibition exchange with the city of Uppsala.
Total Babes
Hafnarborg’s Autumn Exhibition 2025
The exhibition Total Babes invites viewers to explore themes of softness, power and feminine energy in contemporary art. At its heart, the exhibition examines the multifaceted nature of cuteness, the divine feminine and the animistic belief that (mother) nature is a living, dynamic entity. These concepts are viewed through the lens of how they manifest in people, places and things, particularly at a time when feminine archetypes are reemerging and reshaping our understanding of identity and balance.
Bringing together works across a range of mediums, Total Babes presents diverse interpretations of archetypes, mythological figures and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Through these varied perspectives, the exhibition offers an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of vulnerability, strength and empowerment by opening a portal to bring the ethereal down to earth.
The featured artists are Berglind Ágústsdóttir and Hrefna Sigurðardóttir, Darsha Hewitt and Svava Skúladóttir, Dýrfinna Benita Basalan and Róska, Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Gunnþórunn Sveinsdóttir, Hildur Ása Henrýsdóttir and Kíkó Korriró, Hulda Vilhjálmsdóttir and Jóhannes S. Kjarval, Veronica Brovall and Sóley Eiríksdóttir. The exhibition is curated by Jasa Baka and Petra Hjartardóttir.
You Are Here
From Uppsala to Hafnarfjörður and Hafnarfjörður to Uppsala
What is here, what is home, what is our environment or our community? These are all relative concepts that revolve around a specific site or the individual’s relationship with the outside world. We place a pin on a map, we put down our roots and make a home, creating connections and seeing ourselves as part of a greater whole. But this viewpoint – like anything else – may shift, either temporarily when we travel or permanently when we move to a new place, for example.
The exhibition presents artworks from the collection of Uppsala kommun, but Uppsala is a twin town of Hafnarfjörður, being located at a distance of 2085 kilometres from here, as written on a signpost outside the local town hall, pointing to all 10 sister cities of our hometown of Hafnarfjörður. The exhibited works offer insights into life in Uppsala, the surrounding area and the history of the people, allowing us a glimpse of things that may resonate with our own experiences. Indeed, we can find many things that we have in common, living so far North: similar climate and cold nights, the flora and the fauna, values and character, as well as our shared cultural heritage.
The aim of the exhibition is to take a look at the relationship between the people living in these twin towns, thus inviting guests to travel to another place through the power of imagination. We come face-to-face with our similar or dissimilar realities, from a relative perspective that exists only within ourselves, in the mind of the viewer. For there is nothing that brings people together like placing oneself in another person’s shoes – imagining and understanding life through art. Exhibition committee: Aldís Arnadóttir, Hólmar Hólm, Mikaela Granath, Tove Otterclou.
Free entry – see you at Hafnarborg.