Haf – Svanborg Matthíasdóttir

🇮🇸 SIGLA BINDA er samvinnuverkefni tveggja listhópa sem lagt hafa áherslu á bókverkalist: íslenska listahópsins ARKA og norska hópsins Codex Polaris. Norsku listamennirnir eru fimm og fimm ARKIR tóku þátt í verkefninu. Kveikjan að samstarfinu er sameiginleg ástríða allra þátttakenda fyrir bókverkalistinni, metnaður til að skapa nýja list og áhuga fyrir samvinnu og samtali um menningararfinn. Menning Íslands og Noregs á sér sameiginlegar rætur, í tungumáli og frásagnarhefð, í sögu þjóðanna og lífsbaráttu í norðrinu.

Et godt sted å våkne – Nanna Gunhild Amstrup

Sagnirnar að „sigla“ og „binda“ eru algeng orð á norsku og íslensku sem ennþá hafa sömu merkingu á báðum tungum. Þau hafa bæði hlutbundna og óhlutbundna merkingu sem tengist tilveru beggja þjóða. Orðin tengjast hefðum og nýsköpun í list okkar, hafinu sem tengir löndin saman og sameiginlegri sögu. Afrakstur fyrri hluta samstarfsins var til sýnis í Gallery Entrée í Bergen 27. nóvember 2021 – 23. janúar 2022 og verkefnið í heild verður til sýnis í sal Íslenskrar Grafíkur í Hafnarhúsinu í Reykjavík, 16. júní – 3. júlí 2022. Sýningin er opin alla fimmtudaga til sunnudaga frá kl. 13 – 17.

Þátttakendur í sýningunni eru: Anna Snædís Sigmarsdóttir, Ingiríður Óðinsdóttir, Kristín Þóra Guðbjartsdóttir, Sigurborg Stefánsdóttir, Svanborg Matthíasdóttir, Nanna Gunhild Amstrup, Solveig Landa, Rita Marhaug, Imi Maufe og Randi Annie Strand.

Sigling – Ingiríður Óðinsdóttir

Fleiri myndir | More photos:
Myndir frá sýningunni í Gallery Entrée í Bergen.
Photos from the exhibition at Gallery Entrée in Bergen.

Umfjöllun | Reviews: 
Numermagasin: SIGLA BINDA – eit samarbeid over landegrensene 21.12.2021
Artviewer: Sigla Binda at Entrée 03.01.2022

Tingbod – Randi Strand

Villimey – Kristín Þóra Guðbjartsdóttir

SIGLA – BINDA | SAILING – BINDING

🇬🇧 An exhibition from the Icelandic-Norwegian art project SIGLA – BINDA will open on June 16th in the art gallery of the Icelandic Printmakers Association at Hafnarhús in Reykjavík. Open until July 3rd, 2022. The exhibition is open Thursdays to Sundays from 1 pm – 5 pm.

The exhibitors are five Norwegian artists of th artist group Codex Polaris: Nanna Gunhild Amstrup, Solveig Landa, Rita Marhaug, Imi Maufe and Randi Annie Strand, – along with five members of ARKIR: Anna Snædís Sigmarsdóttir, Ingiríður Óðinsdóttir, Kristín Þóra Guðbjartsdóttir, Sigurborg Stefánsdóttir and Svanborg Matthíasdóttir.

Jare – Solveig Landa

Norske påvirkere – Sigurborg Stefánsdóttir

From Codex Polaris information site about the project: 

SIGLA – BINDA
Is a cross-border collaboration rooted in the love of artist’s books, with ambitions to create art that touches both the mind and the eye. One rainy day in February 2019, the Norwegian book art group Codex Polaris (CP) and the Icelandic book art group Arkir met at North Bay Letterpress Arts (NBLA) in California. However, the history of CPs and Arkir goes further back. Five years ago, we established contact connected to CP’s initiative and planning of a joint Nordic participation at CODEX 2019; America’s largest book fair for “the handmade book as work of art”. In the aftermath of this impressive event, we have stayed in touch having in mind a joint exhibition concept with the book object in the centre.

BACKGROUND
To humankind the text-image combination and its physical carriers; the stone tablet, the papyrus scroll and the codex format, have had a magical attraction since the dawn of history. Overpowering objects that link us to the people of the past, to the divine and to the law. Norway and Iceland have common cultural roots, through the Norwegian settlement in Iceland, through language, storytelling traditions and not least through their connected book history. These two countries also share links in terms of shipping, fishing and other natural conditions. The iconic stories about Norway, written down in Iceland, are priceless and a central part defining our modern states and self-understanding as cultures, even today.

In the autumn of 2019, Flatøyboka was published in its entirety in Norwegian translation for the first time. Written in Iceland in the years 1387 – 1394, it is considered a unique work in world literature due to its scope and content, but also due to its beautiful, artistic design. During the rule of Denmark, the book was lost to Copenhagen. After long negotiations Iceland got it back in 1971, resulting in a festival in Reykjavik. In 2020, the city of Bergen celebrated its 950th anniversary. As part of this a specific focus has been on the book Codex Hardenbergianus, a particularly lavish edition of Magnus Lagabøte’s first national law from 1274, designed in Bergen. It is still owned by The Royal Library in Copenhagen and is currently on a long-term loan to the National Library in Oslo. The return of cultural treasures is a controversial global topic. The relocations may have saved many important objects and given them a safe place, but at the same time people have suffered priceless loss of important identity objects. In the 13th century, the powerful chief and poet Snorre Sturlason wrote down Norwegian history in the works The Younger Edda and Heimskringa. Above all, such stories show that the countries are closely intertwined. These are threads in a fascinating web of common cultural heritage and its clear manifestation in writing and book culture. In our project we understand the many threads as an opportunity to strengthen continued cultural coexistence: to travel and visit each other, see book treasures where they are, experience societies and cultures as they are today, and together make new connections and new works of art.  

SAILING – BINDING
The terms binda and sigla – which we have chosen as the title for our project, are two of many common words between Norwegian and Icelandic. They have both concrete and abstract meanings related to our existence  , to the sea that binds us together, to our artistic practice between tradition and innovation and to the historical ties between our nations.

THE TARGET GROUP 
Our target group is the art-interested audience, but also those who are curious about an old and important craft such as bookbinding. We hope that the exhibition concept of which Sigla–Binda will be shown in (Entrée, Bergen – november 2021 and Grafikehuset, Reykjavik June 2022) can arouse the interest of the many people interested in history when it comes to our references to Iceland and Norway’s common (written) culture.  

Búrfell – Anna Snædís Sigmarsdóttir

Malbik endar – Imi Maufe

Stella Polaris – Rita Marhaug

Ljósmyndir: | Photos: the artists.