Steingrimur Eyfjörd
The Golden Plover Has Arrived
Icelandic Pavilion
52nd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
Exhibition: 10 June-21 November 2007
Special opening hours: 7-10 June 2007, 9 am 6 pm
11 June, 10 am 18 pm
Palazzo Bianchi Michiel
Cannaregio 4391/A / Strada Nova
Ca dOro vaporetto/waterbus stop (line no 1)
www.cia.is/venice
Steingrimur Eyfjörd is Icelands representative to the 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. The artist will present a group of 14 new works collectively entitled The Golden Plover Has Arrived, commissioned by Christian Schoen, Director of the CIA.IS -Center for Icelandic Art and curated by Hanna Styrmisdottir, an independent curator based in Reykjavik.
Steingrimur Eyfjörd is one of the foremost of a generation of artists who came to prominence in Iceland during the 1970s. His prolific output over the past 25 years draws on his experience not only as artist but as a comic strip author, magazine editor, writer, curator and teacher. His work employs a wide variety of media, including photography, comic strip, video, painting, sculpture, performance, writing and installation. His art may appear equally diverse conceptually: founded on influences as disparate as folk tales, Icelandic sagas, womens fashion magazines, religion, superstition, critical theory and many other current topics, Eyfjörds chains of association intersect at a nodal point of multiple meaning, forming a body of work that is multi-layered and complex yet always reveals an articulate and unexpected approach to the issues at hand.
The Golden Plover Has Arrived
The golden plover is a small wading bird, regarded as the harbinger of spring in Iceland. Its arrival in the country in late March, early April, is invariably announced in the local media.
The Golden Plover Has Arrived brings together seemingly arbitrary threads of culture, economy and politics in a discerning analysis of contemporary Icelandic society.
As part of the work, Eyfjörd consulted and collaborated with people from all walks of life, among them artists and academics. He also visited a medium who put him in contact with an elf or hidden person, normally invisible to human eyes, a common and still popular myth in Iceland. The purpose of this was to buy an elf sheep for The Sheep Pen, the central work in The Golden Plover. This somewhat surreal act highlights one of the most intangible concerns in Eyfjörds work: his interest in the function of consciousness in the construction of physical reality. This aspect of Eyfjörds work is also a reflection of a belief and culture particular to Iceland, and can be further explored in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.
For further information on the Icelandic presence in Venice, please visit
Commissioner:
Christian Schoen
Curator:
Hanna Styrmisdóttir
Commissioning institution:
CIA.IS Center for Icelandic Art
Hafnarstræti 16
IS-101 Reykjavík
Tel: 00354-562 72 62
Fax: 00354-562 66 56
info@cia.is
www.cia.is / www.artnews.is
Curators assistant:
Rebekka Silvía Ragnarsdóttir
Press contact:
Brunswick Arts (London)
Benjamin Ward
44 (0) 20 7936 1297
bward@brunswickgroup.com
Brunswick Arts LLP
16 Lincolns Inn Fields
London. WC2A 3ED
Catalogue:
Ed. by Steingrimur Eyfjörd and Hanna Styrmisdóttir, published by Lóan er komin ehf, CIA.IS Center for Icelandic Art and the Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavík 2007
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and Baugur Group; Landsvirkjun, Landsbanki, Glitnir and the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs
As well as Tryggingamidstodin, Icelandair, Islandtours and Vodafone, Germany.
