The fourth conversation in the series Collaborations in Contemporary Art is to be streamed live on Friday, November 27th at 13:00 where Hanna Styrmisdóttir will meet with Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson. The stream will be accessible at fineart.lhi.is.

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.

Libia Castro (ES) and Ólafur Ólafsson (IS) are an artist's collective living in Rotterdam and Berlin, and residing regularly in Reykjavik and Málaga. They started their collaboration in The Netherlands in 1997 during their Master in visual arts at Frank Mohr Institute, Hanzehogeschool Academy Minerva University of Groningen. Their practice is collaborative, conceptual, socially engaged and interdisciplinary. They work with a variety of media such as: Text, video, photography, music/audio, painting, sculpture and multi media installations, performance and public (outdoor) interventions.

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In their projects they often collaborate with other artists, professionals, individuals and groups. Sensitive to the context and places where they work, with their projects they critically and inventively explore the ways in which everyday life, society and the individual are affected by ideological, cultural, historic, socio-economic and political factors, as much as they focus and reflect on silenced histories and counter narratives. Their practice portrays people of all walks of life and reflects on the contradictions our everyday life is caught up in, as well as it intervenes into public outdoor contexts and expands into to other public platforms exceeding the art exhibition space, experimenting with others with art´s agency, magic and it´s transformative possibilities.

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson represented the Icelandic Pavilion curated by Ellen Blumenstein (DE), and commissioned by the Icelandic Art Center, with the exhibition Under Deconstruction at The 54th Biennale di Venezia (2011).

Series schedule:

25 September: Claire Paugam and Julius Pollux
16 October: Magnús Pálsson
30 October: Lucky 3 – Melanie Ubaldo, Darrin Mark, Dýrfinna Benita Basalam
27 November: Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson

The series is organised by Páll Haukur Björnsson Programme Director at BA Fine Art, Sindri Leifsson, project manager at the Department of Fine Art and Hanna Styrmisdóttir.

Image: Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson and The Magic Team, 
In Search of Magic – Proposal for a New Constitution for the Republic of Iceland. A multivocal music, visual art and civic performance and demonstration bringing to life all 114 articles of the proposed new Icelandic constitution from 2011.