STARA
Listería – Unfinished museum in Seltjarnarnes
no.4 2.TBL 2015
Jón Proppé
Finnbogi Pétursson, infra/supra, water, light, sinus waves and electricity. 2015. Photo RAX
On the western tip of Seltjarnarnes stands a big, unfinished house. Close by is Nesstofa, a stone house built around the middle of the 18th centur y to house the then director general of public health. The idea was for the new house to host a museum of medicine, but for various reasons this did not happen and what remains is a large and beautiful building, skillfully embedded in the landscape. Inside, everything is unfinished; the walls are just raw cement, there is no water, heat or electricity. The house has not been of much use with the exception of a student exhibition mounted by the Icelandic Academy of Arts, but recently the curators
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Margrét Áskelsdóttir and Klara Stephensen were given permission to open up the space and install an exhibition which includes the works of five artists. The exhibition is a simple one and the works are allowed plenty of space in this big house. Still, a fairly complex dialog takes place within it, not least the dialog between visual art on one hand, and the house and its surroundings