NEWS 2025
The public artwork In Times of Old was selected from a closed competition held by the Government Property Agency in collaboration with Association of Icelandic Visual Artist. The artwork will be installed in spring 2025 at Skúlagata 4 for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.
In Times of Old 1961-2061
The title In Times of Old is a reference to one of the opening stanzas of Völuspá, inspired by the surf and the view of Faxaflói Bay from the building in Skúlagata, along with the current renovations carried out on the building.
The artwork consists of a text work in brass and a Prussian blue sky containing the position of the stars over Reykjavík on 1 January 2061, on the 100th anniversary of the building. The text work comprises two independent sentences that are joined by the word Ocean (Hafið). Together, the sentences form a semicircle above the entrance to the building, with the words: Stars guide us home across THE OCEAN connects the countries of the world (Stjörnur varða vegi heim um HAFIÐ tengir saman lönd heimsins). Thus, the ocean finishes one sentence and begins the other. Both sentences are selected based on their connection to the history of Iceland and the building.
The first sentence refers to how in the past, when sailing across the ocean to settle in new areas and later travel, the stars were a certain constant in the sky, used to navigate the sea routes. Each word in the sentence is chosen based on ideas of alliteration, rhythm and exoteric language. The second sentence is formed in the same way, but based on the idea that the ocean is not only a divider between countries, but rather a thread that connects all countries and has been mankind’s way of transport and communication for thousands of years.
This connection between the ocean and the stars then embodies the work’s final part which will take place on 1 January 2061. The plan is to then launch into space two letters about the status of the Icelandic language and the Icelandic community, one with an optimistic view and the other one pessimistic. This is a message-in-a-bottle of sorts, with two different messages, two possibilities regarding the future. This part of the work is intrinsically connected to time being a flow towards change, towards an unknown uncertainty, but is linked to the fact that the building is being renovated for future use. In this context, the building’s centenary forms a predictable constant for the future and the work is intended to honour that.