Cycle Music and Art Festival in Kopavogur: 5 events to check out at this new and ambitious festival

We’re getting yet another amazing festival here in Iceland! This is a new Music and Arts festival called Cycle and it looks really promising. It’ll be held in Kópavogur, a town adjacent to Reykjavík and only a 20 minute bus ride away from the city center.

Cycle Music and Art Festival will bring together the efforts of world renowned artists such as Ólafur Elíasson, Icelandic/Danish visual artist known for example for The Weather Project in Tate Modern in 2003, Danish composer and installation artist Simon Steen Andersen and Irish composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe, along with rising stars in the Icelandic art and music scene. The concept is mainly to combine the two creative worlds of music and visual arts, and to become a scene of creation rather than just observation.

The festival features some really exciting artists and events – here are a few:

Parabólur

Parabólur is an experimental music ensemble that performs using huge drums made of radar antenna covers. Parabólur consists of Steingrímur Guðmundsson, the percussionist Sigtryggur Baldursson of KUKL and The Sugarcubes and electrical experimentalist musician Kippi Kaninus.

Gerðarsafn Art Museum, Thursday August 13th at 18:30

Spiegeltunnel – Mirror Tunnel

Ólafur Elíasson is one of the best known Icelandic artists today. In this event, his sculpture, Mirror Tunnel, converses with a new musical composition by the same name composed by Páll Ragnar Pálsson. It will be performed by Skark Ensemble, an Icelandic string instrumentalist collective, that will be spread around the room, allowing the audience to walk around between them.

Gerðarsafn Art Museum, Thursday August 13th at 20:00

Diptych

Composer Þráinn Hjálmarsson and visual artist Sigurður Guðjónsson combine their strengths and those of the Icelandic Flute Ensemble to create an audio installation and live performance staged in the Kópavogshæli Asylum, a former institution for leprosy and tuberculosis patients.

Kópavogshæli Asylum Friday August 14th at 20:30

Ceremony Harmony

The Icelandic Love Corporation are a performance art trio that have been making art together since 1996 and they’ll be premiering a new work called Ceremony Harmony, focusing on identity and bringing together unexpected elements to create harmony. This will be a public, outdoor event in Hamraborg, central Kópavogur, and everyone is welcome to attend. Check out this photo gallery from the trio’s previous escapades.

Hamraborg Bridge, Saturday August 15th at 15:00

Surrounded By Strangers

The South Icelandic Chamber Choir will be performing new compositions by Eyvind Gulbrandsen, Georg Kári Hilmarsson, Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason and Páll Guðmundsson frá Húsafelli.

This is a diverse range of composers, for example Páll has become well known for sculptures and paintings as well as performances with Sigur Rós, where he uses his custom-built instrument, the stone harp, while Gulbrandsen’s performances often lean towards being installations rather than concerts.

Gerðarsafn Art Museum, Saturday August 15th at 17:00

So as you can see there will be plenty of interesting things going on this week in Kópavogur. It’ll be a visual and musical treat so no avid music or art enthusiast should miss this new and ambitious festival!