Iceland University of Arts Conversation Series

The second conversation in the series Collaborations in Contemporary Art is to be streamed live on Friday, October 16th at 13:00 where Hanna Styrmisdóttir will have a conversation with renowned artist Magnús Pálsson.

Collaborations in Contemporary Art is a series of conversations hosted by the Department of Fine Art at the Iceland University of the Arts in autumn 2020 between artists and artists‘ collectives and Hanna Styrmisdóttir, Professor of Curatorial Practice at the IUA. Artists will discuss their collaborative practices, their methods and processes, with specific examples of exhibitions or projects that highlight the many ways that collaborations happen in the expanded artistic field.

Magnús has worked actively in the theatre and he was one of the founders of the experimental theatre group Gríma in the early sixties. But he also worked on sculpture, book making and performances in loose connection with the movement later called Fluxus.

He has worked with his ideas about positive and negative space creating sculptural works dealing with solidifying the space that surrounds human beings and their environment by casting in plaster of paris, sound, smell, atmosphere, feelings etc. He formulated the Art of teaching Art at the Reykjavík Arts College and ran the experimental department at that school. He later created and ran four international artists´ workshops called Mob Shop involving some 150 artists from different countries.

Since 1982 Magnús has mostly concentrated on sound poetry and the unity of language and music. He created The Icelandic Sound Poetry Choir (Nýlókórinn) which has since been performing his works and those of others. His large performance pieces often involve many performers. They normally deal with the music of language and the relationship between performance art and theatre.