OPEN SPACE - ''Circumference''

SÍM Residency artists invite everyone to their event — Open Space opening, 28 October, 4:00 PM-8:00 PM, SÍM Barn Exhibition hall Korpúlffstaðir, Thorsvegur 1, 112, Reykjavik.

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“Circumference”

Curatorial text by: Klaudia Januško she/her - RS/HU

The artists participating in the pop-up exhibition at SÍM Hlöðuloftið, titled “Circumference”, are spending their final months at SÍM's Húsið Seljavegur 32—a space that has hosted over 40 local artist studios and the main SÍM Residency apartment for international artists since 2006. As the building faces demolition next year to make way for new developments, it leaves behind a poignant legacy of artistic activity. The seemingly endless cycle of artists arriving from around the world each month is now coming to a halt, as if time itself has paused. Yet with this pause, a new cycle begins, destined to unfold elsewhere, carrying the promise of fresh perspectives.

The artists’ captured memories leave an indelible mark, forever ensnared in the virtual realm, preserving the essence of ever-evolving communities. Mathieu DeBlois’ uniquely documented and meticulously assembled virtual space conjures and retains the presence of these artists within the building, anchoring them where they belong. In this eternal space, they continue their creative journey, existing together in perpetuity. This captured fragmentation is reflected in the paintings of Julia Schewalie, who breaks down figurality, turning the viewer's gaze to the reflected light, to the mystical, evolving from the figural canvas to the dissolution of form. Movement makes her paintings enable to explore, creating monochrome pieces that shift and change with light, colour and perspective.

Each fragment has a significance, just as in Gabriel Dawe's drawings, where the colours bridge the farthest points of the tiny squares to create something whole new. By setting rules for colors and grids, he moves toward abstraction, crafting a fluid visual rhythm. In the Arctic, he began a video series centered on icebergs, capturing glimpses of the landscape through binoculars, as if in search of the elusive elixir of life—colors sealed in a bottle. The search for a bottle by the ocean’s edge is not a childish pirate riddle. Yet, Emma Sarpaniemi’s photographic series pulls us back to childhood, with vibrant colors and playful forms at the heart of her work, evoking a world of innocence and wonder, while exploring womanhood and femininity. We find her in a tent disguised as a general store, where a video offers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes process of her photograph series in Iceland. This sense of playfulness, like petals vanishing beneath a veil of white chalk, emerges in Marcel Tarelkin's work. In this long-running series, the flower petals become a meditation on the impermanence of the artist’s practice and a subtle questioning of the materiality of creation itself. Drawn to Icelandic stones, Louise Preuß meticulously sketches and arranges them, exploring their forms and meanings with quiet contemplation. Her practice flows seamlessly across art, music, research, philosophy, and poetry, defying categorization. She immerses herself in moments of vivid inspiration, observing and describing the world around her. 

Iceland's plants are part of the island's heritage, but does it matter whether they are native or brought here by human hands? Noah Thor Alhalel's latest installation delves into the human-scale geopolitical question by using Skógarkerfill (Anthriscus sylvestris), an invasive species introduced around the ‘30s to Iceland. His work reconstructs the plants' "new" habitats, evoking the sound of wind sweeping through the Esja mountain, and reflecting on the forging powers of nature and human influence on the landscape. Esja embodies the unique connection between nature and urban life in Iceland, where wilderness is just minutes away from the capital's busy streets. Esja serves as an inspiration for Sonjis Laine too, who embraces ethnography and anthropology as artistic tools to unveil poetic ways of engaging with the landscape. By dwelling among the mountains, rocks, and minerals, she attunes herself to the rhythms of nature, viewing life and objects as transformative processes. Her work intertwines research and performance, documenting body knowledge, speculative fiction, memory, and layered experiences of time. Laine crafts a space where the organic and the eternal converge, capturing the delicate balance between the fleeting and the enduring, in a state of becoming, dissolving, becoming and dissolving again.

Amidst the continuous construction and expansion in Reykjavík, the lively sounds of starlings fill the air. Composer Erik Klinga has captured the chattering of Icelandic starlings, using their natural calls to control a synthesizer. Their melodies shape the tone, intertwining nature with technology. As an avid birdwatcher, Klinga crafts a unique harmony between the organic and the electronic with his live performance in the space.

Now, we transition from the present to the virtual realm again, encountering once more the digital imprint of the residency's space—the artists' eternally cherished building in Reykjavík.

Participating artists:

Emma Sarpaniemi she/her - FI, Mathieu DeBlois he/him - CA, Marcel Tarelkin he/him - DE, Gabriel Dawe he/him - USA, Erik Klinga he/him - SE, Louise Preuß she/her - DE, Sonjis Laine she/her - FI, Noah Thor Alhalel he/him - IS, Julia Schewalie she/her - DE.