LIST - Icelandic Art News

It was truly an invasion as about 70 Icelanders travelled to Berlin last month, organized and coordinated by CIA.IS – Center for Icelandic Art. The headquarter of this artistic takeover were in the room of KlinK & BanK at Berliner Liste. In contrast to most of the other rooms there this one was almost bursting because of the raw creative energy. OK, the other booths were more or less commercial gallery spaces where the aim was to sell art, so it was somehow natural that KlinK & BanK got more attention and probably more controverse but mainly positive feedback. The space was packed with installations, videos, paintings and sculptures and many performances took place during the week. But parallel to Berliner Liste there was another interesting show going on where three Icelandic artists presented their installations. At Berliner Kunstsalon Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Egill Sæbjörnsson and Magnús Árnason used the chance to present their strong works to thousands of visitors. Besides those main attractions and the open studio of Erla Haraldsóttir at Künstlerhaus Bethanien or Gabríela Fríðriksdóttir’s show at Art Forum Berlin there were many side-attractions with an Icelandic focus, e.g. the evening in the famous “Münzclub” or the Icelandic party in Club Rio - many opportunities to meet foreign artists, curators, collectors or journalists.

Although Berlinvasion was sponsored and supported generously by Thyssen-Bornesmisza Art Contemporary, the Icelandic Embassy in Berlin and of course by CIA.IS many artists came at their own expense in order to use this opportunity to make contacts, to present their works and of course to enjoy big city’s life and the vibrant art scene in the German capital. But everyone should be aware of the fact that this was a unique event ...

LIST asked participants and visitors for feedback. Here are three statements:

“Klink and Bank participation at Berliner Liste 2005 was a great experience for everybody involved. By saying everybody involved I mean not only the people from Kling & Bang gallery organizing the invasion, but also the fact that close to 70 visual artists and musician showed up and attended the preparation and the opening. That created a quite different setup and environment than the typical gallery situation all around us at the different venues of the Berlin Art Fair. And as an surprise for us, it draw a lot of attention to our chaotic but still very functional space. The very common feedback the KlinK and BanK space got was that it was the most interesting spot at the Berliner Liste. We got a lot of interesting contacts and artist’s even sold a lot of works.

People were very curious about these places, Kling & Bang gallery and KlinK and BanK. Many were amazed how much we had managed in a very short lifetime and the fact that such a young gallery could manage to work so closely with artists such as Jason Rhoades, Paul McCarthy, John Bock, David Askevold and Christoph Schlingensief. First and most of all the attention and interest we got was lying within how many interesting artists were coming from a small populated country as Iceland.

The result? Collectors, galleries, artists, project spaces and the media around the world are interested in Icelandic artists in general and the artist´s space KlinK and BanK – offering a lot of interesting projects. We also realized that the understanding of what we have been doing, and what KlinK and BanK stands for, is many steps ahead than how it was realized in our own country.”

Erling T.V. Klingenberg (Reykjavík, Iceland)
Artist and one of eight founders of Kling & Bang gallery.

"I appreciated very much the presentation of Icelandic art in Berlin – especially because I recently had a cooperation with KlinK & BanK in Reyjkjavik in May 2005. [see issue LIST #1]
It was not only a return visit by new friends, new artists, but even more because their resourcefulness and their courage do good to us. Iceland transports an energy, a power which we on the continent either don’t know or which got lost. Therefore Iceland’s appearance in Germany was and is important and pathbreaking."

Christoph Schlingensief (Berlin, Germany)
Activist in the movies, theater and visual art.

"I visited the Icelandic artists at the Berliner Liste and was very impressed by the vibrant and dynamic expression of their art. They got a lot of attention. In my view, it is very important that Icelandic culture can be presented abroad in all its great variety and the visual arts have an important role to play in this respect. Berlin is rapidly becoming one of the most dynamic cultural centers in the world and the Art Forum Berlin with the Berliner Liste and Kunstsalon will increasingly draw the attention to the international art world. More and more young Icelandic artists are experiencing this and coming to Berlin to study and work."

Ólafur Davíðsson, Ambassador of the Republic of Iceland (Berlin, Germany)

"The Berlin exhibitions have been another proof that the contemporary arts in Western Europe are under a remarkable influence of the intellectual discourse and the sciences of the arts. Many German artists are trying to achieve the scientific punch line or to hide into a kind of superficial privacy, but both of them are reactions to the discourse and with it their growing depende on the science gets obvious. Compared to them the Icelandic artists are not afraid! Entering Icelandic spaces during the Berlin exhibitions was like entering the Klink og Bank galleries in Iceland themselves. They didn’t just bring their art works to Germany to sell them, somehow they filled the exhibition space with the Icelandic spirit: power, spontaneity and a kind of unreflected self-confidence, which seems not to mind the public reaction. But by ignoring the conventions of the institutional art fair and while they are focused just on their personal interest in their own art works, the Icelandic acts probably offered the only real places to experience art."

Stefanie Hontscha (Berlin, Germany): Dramaturge / culture manager; involved in several projects in Iceland for the Goethe Institut, Borgarleikhús, Listasafn Reykjavíkur and Olms Verlag.