The art festival "Villa Reykjavik" will take place between 9 and 31 July in the harbour part of the Icelandic capital. A temporary international art district will be situated in the harbour area in this period. The festival is organised by the Polish Association of Culture Integration.
The festival is an extension of the week-long summer festival "Villa Warsaw" that took place in Poland in 2006 with 10 participating galleries. Similar to the Warsaw festival, the purpose of the festival in Reykjavik is to make the hosting city’s gallery scene accessible to a wider public than usual.
According to the participating Polish gallery Raster, the project stems from a conviction that private galleries that collaborate play a decisive role in determining the shape of the field of contemporary art. An important element of the project is also to initiate cooperation on cultural exchanges between the participating galleries.
The opening of the festival is planned for 9 July 2010. The 14 galleries participating in Villa Reykjavik are from Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, London, Milan, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Vilnius and Warsaw. All the artists collaborating with the participating galleries will be present during the first week, which will be full of concerts, performances, meetings and other events.
Photo: "Plants & process, The Garden Project, 2010" by Anna Hrund Másdóttir and Sigríður Torfadóttir Tulinius - Kling & Bang