The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Museum: Summer exhibition & rethinking art outside of the cultural mainstream
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In this episode of Icelandic Art Center’s Out there podcast we speak with artists Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Unnar Örn, who are board members at Safnasafnið, The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum. The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir in Svalbardseyri, in north Iceland. For 30 years the founders and board of the museum have focused their attention on collecting work, and often extensive bodies of works, by artists whose contributions to art have existed outside the cultural mainstream and collections, and have been considered folk, *naïve *or *outsider *artworks. We discuss the role of the museum, some of the language around categorizing art and artists, and the summer exhibitions, including; *Dark Deeds and the Light of Hope and Aesthetics of Senses and Delights *curated by Níels Hafstein, Source by Nína Óskarsdóttir and Who Came Through by Jasa Baka curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Sale by Arnar Herbertsson curated by Unnar Örn, Domestic Spirit by Svava Skúladóttir curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Deities by Bimala Dutta curated by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir and Assortments by Örn Karlsson curated by Níels Hafstein. There are over 13 exhibitions and hangs on display now so to read more about the variety visit the museum’s website. 

The Icelandic Folk and Outsider Art Museum was founded in 1995 by **Níels Hafstein and Magnhildur Sigurðardóttir. **For over 30 years the museum’s founders have been passionately committed to collecting artworks by artists who have hitherto been seen as outside the cultural mainstream, often also called *naïve *or *outsider *artists who have a real and direct connection to an original creative spirit; true, unspoiled and free. The museum is unique in Iceland, initially collecting artworks by all major con­temporary folk artists and autodidacts in Iceland, forming the core of the collection, while also gradually acquiring an excellent collection of art by professional artists, whose works cohere with exhibition and collection policies. It is of importance that all the artworks presented are on an equal footing, in exhibitions as well as the collec­tions. The core collection consists today of thousands of artworks and sketches by over 300 artists, dating from the mid­19th century to the present.

https://safnasafnid.is/exhibitions-2024/

@gunnitune @unnar.orn at @safnasafnid

@ninaoskarsdottir @jasa.baka 

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Created and produced by the Icelandic Art Center, Out There brings co-hosts Becky Forsythe @beforsythe and Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir @tindilfaetta in conversation with artists, curators and art professionals at Borgarbókasafn. This episode is our last one, but surely more things to come from the Icelandic Art Centre in support of circulating critical engagement with contemporary art in Iceland, ongoing dialogues with artists and their works!  

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