What is the fun in just walking around?
ARCTIC TRAVEL / CULTURE
Writer: Vilborg Einarsdottir
Photographs: Óskar Jónasson, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Stefán Jónsson
May 2022
In Reykjavik’s scene of punk & performance culture back in the eighties, these three friends did not go unnoticed. Belonging to the same crowd as Björk and the Sugarcubes, they created memorable multi-art performances, experimental theatre, music, films and installations - always different, sometimes outrageous. Creativity was without borders and an artistic future was obvious.
Eventually, all went abroad to further their artistic studies. Hrafnkell, Keli, to the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and later to the Goldsmiths College in London, where Óskar studied directing in The National Film and Television School and Stefán studied acting in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Now fast forward a few decades and we have three lifelong friends, established, awarded and respected artists in their late fifties; Stefán Jónsson, an awarded actor and director of multiple plays for the National Theatre of Iceland, with numerous film roles to his credit; visual artist Keli, Hrafnkell Stefánsson, a recipient of the Icelandic Visual awards whose photographic work along with video, sculpture and installations has been exhibited widely in Iceland and abroad. Director and screenwriter Óskar Jónasson, recipient of the Edda awards by the Icelandic Film & Television Academy, who has directed five feature films and written and directed extensively for television. In other words, these artists have been busy!
JONAA©ÓJ/HS/SJ
But not too busy to take time aside each summer and hike into Iceland’s wilderness or follow the shores of the country’s most remote regions. Only, their hikes tend to create somewhat different travel pictures and memories than the rest of us would bring back. They simply can’t help themselves!
Making the most of the unexpected, inebriated by the power of the natural forces – creation, destruction and recreation. Whatever the ocean washes ashore is transformed into art; colourful plastic, old shoes, bottles, and fishing nets.
Because, as Óskar Jónasson puts it simply: What is the fun in just walking around?
We leave it to these amazing pictures, that have now been published in a book, Arctic Creatures, to tell these very different travel stories. ▢
JONAA©ÓJ/HS/SJ
All pictures on page JONAA©ÓJ/HS/SJ
Further information on the artists and their work:
Hrafnkell Jónsson, Keli, visual artists
Stefan Jonsson, actor & director
Óskar Jónsson, screenwriter & director
Vilborg Einarsdottir is the Editor-in-Chief of JONAA, the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic and a JONAA partner & founder. Formally a journalist for 12 years at Morgunblaðið in Iceland, she has worked since 1996 as a specialised producer of film, photography and media productions on extreme locations in Arctic Greenland and as a cultural producer in the Nordic-Arctic region. She is an awarded film and documentary scriptwriter, experienced speaker and editor of photography books from the Arctic.
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