SÍM Gallery: The Shape of Slowness

Join us in slowing down and celebrating the arrival of Iceland’s first day of summer with The Shape of Slowness, a group exhibition by international artists currently in SÍM Residency artists-in-residence program. 

Opening on 24th between 4-6 PM, performance by Dominique Tegho at 5:30 PM

The exhibition will remain open on the 25th, 26th, 27th from 1-6 PM. 

Live concert - SONIC INTERVENTION by Ernst Lima on the 26th 6-7 PM

In The Shape of Slowness, artists from across the globe converge in Reykjavík not as hurried producers, but as attuned listeners, patient witnesses, and responsive makers. Through materially grounded practices, ecological awareness, and somatic sensitivity, they cultivate artworks shaped by the rhythms of place, the passage of time, and the ethics of slowness.

This exhibition emerges from the grassroots intimacy of the SÍM Residency, where each artist lived and worked not simply in Iceland, but with it. The volcanic soil, shifting skies, and relentless wind became collaborators rather than backdrops. Slowness here is not resistance for its own sake - it is a necessary practice in a world increasingly structured by acceleration. Making art slowly is to honor process, respect material, and allow time to sediment into form.

These artists do not claim Iceland. They arrive, stay a while, and listen. To be a visitor is to recognize impermanence, to receive hospitality with humility, and to engage with land and time as if they were sentient hosts. This ethics of visitation mirrors their ethics of making: slow, responsive, and interdependent.

In a time of climate crisis, digital saturation, and compressed attention spans, The Shape of Slowness is both a gesture and a proposal. It asks: What happens when we slow down - not just as artists, but as humans in relation to land, sound, time, and each other? The works in this exhibition are not only shaped by slowness - they shape slowness in return, making it visible, audible, and inhabitable.

Artists:

Kail Timsuk he/him - EE

Sidekriipsuta she/her - EE

Nermine El Ansari she/her - FR/ISL

Dominique Tegho she/her - LB/DE

Takashi Hokoi he/him - JP

Sabina Otelea she/them - RO/UK

Iceylithe Bintong Wang she/her - CH

Christiane Peschek they/them - AT

Ernst Lima they/them - AT 

Poster: Nermine El Ansari she/her - FR/ISL and Sabina Otelea she/them - RO/UK