Grotta Zine

A platform about Grotta Zine, Icelandic artists and art scene.

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Meanwhile in Iceland!

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Olafur Eliasson installs gigantic riverbed in Danish museum

“Riverbed is running.” So tweeted Studio Olafur Eliasson yesterday – a poetic press release if ever I heard one – to announce the opening of the Danish-Icelandic artist’s latest epic installation. Something of a titan in the art world, having already created moon, he’s now builtriverbed in the south wing of the Louisiana Musuem of Modern Art in Denmark.

Olafur says: “I am interested in how you connect this landscape to the rest of the world and ultimately, how you experience yourself within it.” Visitors can walk along the riverbed, across the pebbles and stones heaped about it, and through the semi-submerged gallery doorways. There’s also a mesmerising model room, full of glowing globes and prototypes. Contained within the stark white walls, the riverbed becomes momentous; there’s no other scenery to distract from it, so it itself becomes magical. Olafur points out that “the further away we get from the local context, the cruder the sensing becomes.”

Just as a river is ever-changing, so is this installation. “Nothing ever remains the same” tweeted the studio, with pictures of the rock piles visitors have already started building. It also retweeted @telescoper: “I don’t know what’s more fascinating, the work itself or the way people behave inside it!”

In other words, riverbed rocks.

Taken from It's Nice That

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Fufanu - Circus Life

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We at Grotta Zine are back from summer holiday.

We will be posting all of the best things happening in icelandic art.

Here is a newly released song by the Icelandic band Fufanu that our editor plays the drums for.

The video artwork was made by the incredible product designer/artist Brynjar Sigurðarson.

Glad to be back :)

Enjoy ;)

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The magnificent MUCK play their song Nirvana on KEXP at the last Iceland Airwaves.

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Here is an article about Grotta Zine and it's creator.

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Follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/GrottaZine @grottazine

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An interview with Frosti Gnarr about Grotta zine in the latest Reykjavik Grapevine

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The Palace of the Summerland has started! We have 25 meters of primed canvas, 100 meters of plywood, 2 pianos, hundreds of buckets of paint, mini-sets for each scene that is going to be filmed and a many, many props (found after a long quest at the Vienna flee market) at the disposal for the realization of this master chef d’oeuvre of pulp romantics. Only 5 more days for you to wait for the grand opening. Buy your tickets to Vienna, if you have not already. 

Expect music, drinks, fun, an already performing crew of artists and hopefully stunning weather to celebrate Ragnar and his friends!

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The history of Iceland as seen by Hugleikur Dagsson

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The Explosive Sonics of Divinity / Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen is a new theater production by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and composer Kjartan Sveinsson. Inspired by the novel World Light by the Icelandic Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, Kjartansson’s piece works with a style of theater that has not been seen since in some epic flops in the late 19th century. Performative action has been removed in The Explosive Sonics of Divinity and actors are not a part of the production. Theese are tableux describing some romantic sceneries. Sveinsson music is an emotional chorale based on Laxness epiphany texts. 

The Explosive Sonics of Divinity / Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen features stage paintings by the artist and music by Kjartan Sveinsson, a composition for orchestra and choir, performed by the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg and the Film Choir Berlin.

Ragnar Kjartansson says: "I grew up in the theater, since my parents are both actors and directors, and I’ve always been in great awe of the non-narrative parts and the abstract components during rehearsals – the ceremonial mystique of a test phase when the actors are not yet on stage and there is nothing but the machinery, the props and scenery. I wanted to pay tribute to the mechanics and the formal elements of the theater. It’s a theater play without actors that will only use the stage and the music as theatrical elements, intended as an homage to the machine, to the art of stage painting and the scenery. One could also say it´s opera without divas"

Inspired by the novel "World Light" by Halldór Laxness, Ragnar Kjartansson and Kjartan Sveinsson set off for a visit to the classical theater and its elements. World Light is about the incurable longing for beauty and following that exaple Kjartansson and Sveinsson are playing with romantic elements of beauty in a theatrical setting. Berlin´s Volksbuehne is an institution that has worked with constant deconstruction of romantic culture and Germany´s past, so the context of that theater is also a big inspiration for this piece. So much has been deconstructed that The Explosive Sonics of Divinity is playing with the fact that nothing is left but pure hearted banality.

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Lady Boy Records Press Release - LB004

Dear friends, Lady Boy Records is happy to announce the release of their second laser engraved cassette compilation. It features: DJ Flugvél & Geimskip, Bix Vs. Agzilla, AMFJ, Fist Fokkers, Thizone, Krakkbot, Harry Knuckles, Nicolas Kunysz, X. O. C. Gravediggers INC.(/Apacitated), Sindri Vortex and Syrgir Digurljón.

A digital version of the compilation is streamable HERE.

- This is the labels fourth release and its limited to an edition of 50 laser engraved  blue and Yellow cassettes in red cases.

It is available for sale now and cost 22.5 Eur 

A record release party will be held at Paloma on Friday April 18th. - Previous releases include a vacuum packed CD by Slugs and a mandarin with a laser engraved download code by Nicolas Kunysz

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New work by Atli Bender, one of our featured artists

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Another sketch for a painting.

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Beautiful new work by Sigurður Angantýsson our first featured artist

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The theory of relativity gets rid of absolute time. Consider a pair of twins. Suppose that one twin goes to live on top of a mountain while the other stays at sea level. The first twin would age faster than the second. Thus, if they met again, one would be older than the other.” (Steven Hawking from A Brief History of Time)

Time and Time and Again is a film about time and art, based on the life and work of Icelandic artist  (b. 1943). His work is a poetic and philosophical exploration into every-day human experience where time and coincidence play leading role.

Merging reality with fiction the film revisits selected works by Friðfinnsson and uses them as inspiration for a narrative. It tells the story of a pair of twins who were separated at birth, one was brought up in the mountains of Iceland and the other below sea level in Amsterdam. The different force of gravity has made them age differently.

Equally occupied with exploring the nature of time, the twins are in fact one and the same person, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, in present and past.

The third character and the catalyst in the narrative is Aika, who works at a fictional Time Lab in Finland that is responsible for the twin experiment. This character is played by renowned actress Kati Outinen. She knows everything there is to know about time - from the perspective of science and theory. The film follows these three characters as they unknowingly interact through their passion for the intricate concept of time.

Co-directed by Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir and Markús Þór Andrésson and produced by Hlín Jóhannesdóttir for LoFi Productions in Iceland and Sami Jahnukainen for Mouka Filmi in Finland. The film has support from the Icelandic Film Fund, Nordisk Film & TV Fund, MEDIA, RÚV and YLE.

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If you are in #reykjavik #iceland, now is the time to see and climb up on #sitespecific #art #installation #sculpture Þúfa by Ólöf Nordal - the pictures don't do the experience of being on top of it justice. (at Þúfa - Listaverk eftir Ólöfu Nordal)

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Thanks to everyone who came to our party with @bastmagazine last night! What a celebration of #art #music #design #culture and #fashion! We were stoked to see so many people show up and enjoy themselves! Big thanks to #djflugvéloggeimskip, #djyamaho, #cell7 and #russian.girls for providing the music ❤️ (at Paloma)

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I want to abuse my position here at Grotta to ask our fans to follow my band Fufanu on Tumblr. -Frosti Gnarr -Editor of Grotta Zine