The Reykjavík Arts Festival is an art festival that takes place in
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
every other year. It was founded in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
and was biennial from the beginning, but in the years 2005-2016 it was held annually. Since 2016, the festival has again become a biennial event. Last edition took place in 1-19 June, 2022.
History
The Association for the Arts in Reykjavík (''Samtök um Listahátíð í Reykjavík'') was founded on March 10, 1969. Its background was that
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...
, who was living in Iceland at the time, and
Ivar Eskeland
Ivar Eskeland (30 November 1927 – 23 December 2005) was a Norwegian philologist, publisher, translator, biographer, literary critic, newspaper editor, theatre worker, radio personality and organizational leader.
Career
He was born in Stord a ...
, director of the
Nordic House, encouraged the city to hold an international music festival on the one hand, and a Nordic culture festival on the other. After discussions between the Association of Icelandic Artists, the
Minister of Education and the city authorities, it was decided to combine these ideas and create an international Art Festival in Reykjavík, which was held for the first time in the summer of 1970.
Since then, thousands of artists have performed at the Art Festival in Reykjavík. Among them is
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
,
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline Mary du Pré (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987) was a British cellist. At a young age, she achieved enduring mainstream popularity. Despite her short career, she is regarded as one of the greatest cellists of all time.
Her care ...
,
Jóhannes S. Kjarval
Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
,
Helgi Tómasson,
Erró
Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements. ,
Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...
,
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...
,
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within t ...
, and many more.
The festival is responsible for the ''Eyrarrósinni award'', together with the Construction Institute and the
Icelandic Airlines
Loftleiðir HF, internationally known as Icelandic Airlines (abbreviated IAL) or Loftleiðir Icelandic, was a private Icelandic airline headquartered on the grounds of Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík, which operated mostly trans-atlantic fligh ...
.
From 1978 to 1993, and Art & Film Festival was held in connection with the festival and became the oldest film festival in the Nordics.
References
{{reflist
Reykjavík
Festivals in Europe