Garðastofa - the museums art gallery
And Then a Little Something Occurred
The everyday life, the mundane, the here and now. All these moments we try to preserve, pause and enjoy, or avoid. The pleasant moments but also the inevitable part of life, the grief and anguish. It was not so long ago that basic human rights such as the freedom to love were only for the privileged few in this country. With the women's rights movements over the last 100 years, our attitude and standards towards communication in love relationships has changed in a relatively short time. Attitudes and actions that are no longer acceptable, yet have certainly not disappeared from our society. The exhibition And Then a Little Something Occurred sheds light on the radical changes that have taken place in our society regarding the freedom to love and behave, and live as we wish. The exhibition examines how we used to communicate and raises questions for the future. It is necessary to pause, rethink and consider where we are now? What have we done so far and what happens next?
In the exhibition And Then a Little Something Occurred, works by Heiðar Mar Björnsson, Bryndís Ósk Þ. Ingvarsdóttir, Sveinbjörg Símonardóttir, Kristinn E. Hrafnsson and Sara Hjördísi Blöndal are exhibited. They are all based on words and text in one way or another, each reflecting on everyday life and telling stories about love, grief and the mundane. The works ponder upon the preconceived standards and norms in our society, on how to live and behave, norms that certainly do not work for all members of society. The exhibition And Then a Little Something Occurred is layered on top of an existing permanent exhibition at the Akranes Folk Museum and sheds new light on its narrative and focus.
A Fraction of the World's Grief refers to a poem by Steinn Steinarr The world and I. In the film Heiðar Mar captures a small fragment of the world's grief, the human grief, grief that shakes societies. The exhibition draws its title from the same poem by Steinn Steinarr. The film is projected, repeatedly, onto an installation in the permanent exhibition at the Akranes Folk Museum.
A Pamphlet on Love is based on a booklet with the same name by Ingimundur the Old from the year 1922. The work is the result of a collaboration between theatre practitioner Bryndís Ósk Þ. Ingvarsdóttir and curator Sara Blöndal, and is created specifically for this exhibition. The booklet contains instructions for men, targeted mainly at young men, who want to court a good and decent woman and is a unique window into the mindset of people 100 years ago. The work looks at these old-fashioned and outdated standards and translates them to the present and the exhaustive social changes that have taken place in recent years. The booklet, written for men, was most likely never meant to be seen or read by a woman, candidly manspanes, in a romantic way, the elements men think a good and decent woman would like them to acquire. If the outdated standards the booklet contains are overlooked, a rare sight of a hopelessly romantic love guide may be found, a pamphlet on love that speaks straight from the heart of Ingimundur the Old.
In the piece In Conversation With Amma, the curator speaks to her 87-year-old grandmother about the beginning, how she met her husband for the first time, when they worked together in a herring factory in Ingólfsfjörður in the Westfjords of Iceland. They talk about the courtship and their three children. The piece is a soundpiece located in the part of the museum where the permanent exhibition elaborates on life at work, and expands that narrative beyond the workday, what followed, what occurred, what is their love story? In Conversation With Amma is a part of the curator's first project in the master's program from which she is now graduating.
At the end of the exhibition, guests find the work Threshold by Kristinn E. Hrafnsson, where the artist ponders upon the notion of what has happened so far and what is to come. The work is a floor piece that forms the words Hitherto and Henceforth and frames quite well what the exhibition seeks to evoke. He encourages you to contemplate the words in the piece, connect with them and reflect on them. Threshold is located in a walkway, on the floor of the museum, allowing visitors to walk across it, even more than once. Guests exit the exhibition with Kristin's reflections in their mind; what has happened hitherto and how will it be henceforth?