FFF #7 – Hafnarhúsið Art Museum and Laundromat Cafe

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Another short-notice FFF outing, due to a last-minute schedule change, but Elsa chimed in anyway and let me know she’d be joining me for lunch!

Not a lot of places are open at 11 am on Sundays, so I decided to use that ‘Culture Card‘ I got way back in the beginning, and visit the Reykjavik Art Museum at Hafnarhúsið (the Harbor House) “for free”. (34 images and 1 video total)

The Art Museum is right next to the Museum of Photography/Main Library (see FFF #5).

The arty entrance to the art museum. I was there pretty early, shortly after 11 am or so.

There were three shows going on in the house, and I looked at two of them. This is the blurb about the first one, which was basically a raised fancy floor by Katrín Sigurðardóttir. She sure knows how to put together an arty sounding text!!

Funny setup. A very big room, with an elevated floor in the far distance.

Weird setup. A very big room, with an elevated floor in the far distance.

Getting closer…

Yes, quite fancy!

The floor was originally installed in Venice, and lived in a much smaller space, which it spilled out of. I think they were trying to recreated that here by having this bit in another room. While I was there, the wind was making quite a loud noise by flapping the roof tarps. It was almost like a train station!

Look at that flapping roof!

The shape of the floor was taken from some classic building.

Pretty flower shape.

It looked like some stuff was missing, which made little sense until…

… I looked at the schematic for the orginal installation in Venice. Apparently this floor lived in a much smaller space originally. I wonder how they got it out of there?

Closeup of the edge.

Just a friendly reminder on the wall that if you’re unable to walk up stairs, then you’re simply out of luck with regards to this floor. (Was installing a ramp really too much work?)

Out in the gift shop, they were selling a large book dedicated to the artist and the floor.

Picture from Venice. It looks lovely! Many more picture here.

Having being floored (hehe) I ventured up onto the second floor where they were showing some works linking music and visual art.

I attempted to take an artsy picture of the words ‘visual music’ but I didn’t quite have the right lens for it.

The exhibit was in a number of small rooms, and the first one I stumbled into had this going on. Basically it was a large rapidly changing patterns being projected onto a thin fabric, and then onto the wall behind it. The work was soundless, and probably bad for epileptics.

The exhibit was in a number of small rooms, and the first one I stumbled into had this going on. Basically it was a large rapidly changing pattern being projected onto a thin fabric, and then onto the wall behind it. The work was soundless, and probably bad for epileptics. I think the running time was 12 minutes.

Looking between the first screen and the wall.

Looking between the first screen and the back wall.

The next room had this warning on the wall, which I though was pretty funny considering…

… this is what was in the room! Basically, it was a large room with a pillar, four video projectors, and a sound system. Each projector was projecting a video of a lot of smooth pebbles, which seemed to sit on top of some loudspeakers, because when the music boomed, the pebbles would shake harshly.

Walking between rooms I looked down this hallway to the cafe.

In another hall were little rooms that were marked with DON’T YOU DARE RECORD WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE notices. I obliged. This room probably had my favorite music video though, an old goody, Studie nr. 7 by Oskar Fischinger. It looks very much like Studie nr. 8.

The biggest room had a few artists, but they weren’t terribly gripping. The TV on the bottom left had a documentary about guys doing music with computers and animating it back in the 70s (?) but the volume was so low it was hard to hear anything.

Last but not least were these monitors showing award winning video projects from a festival in Reykjavik. They were all set to music, and varied in coolness.