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Vísitasíur // Opening at Akureyri Art Museum
20. September 2021
The exhibition Visitations is part of the artistic reserach project Visitations: Polar Bears Out of Place, undertaken in collaboration with with experts in the fields of visual art, ethnolgoy, animal studies and environmental studies. The aim of the project is to contribute to a growing body of knowledge concerning human/non-human relations in a time of global warming. To this end particular focus is on historic and contemporary representations of polar bear arrivals to Iceland. Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson are a collaborative art partnership. Their interdisciplinary art practice is research-based and socially engaged, exploring issues of history, culture and environment in relation to both humans and non-human species. Often working in close consultation with both experts and amateurs in the field, their work tests cultural constructs and tropes, and human behavior in respect to ecologies, extinction, conservation and the environment.
As a practice-based artistic research project, Visitations: Polar Bears out of Place has unequivocal value for the development of research culture in the arts in Iceland and marks a turning point for the University of the Arts. It further entails an interdisciplinary collaboration between Iceland University of the Arts and the University of Iceland, introducing an innovative approach to research collaboration in times that call for a revision of conventional methodologies and a new approach to knowledge production.
The project is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund and the Visual Arts Fund. It is hosted at the Iceland University of the Arts, where Snæbjörnsdóttir holds a professorship and the role of Programme Director in graduate studies within the Department of Fine Art. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Anchorage Museum in Alaska and Gerðarsafn, Kóparvogur Art Museum.
Curator: Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, associate professor in art history, University of Iceland.