{"id":287596,"date":"2011-10-14T15:17:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T15:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2011\/10\/14\/uturdur-gives-iceland-what-it-wants-icelandic-culture\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:16:54","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T16:16:54","slug":"uturdur-gives-iceland-what-it-wants-icelandic-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2011\/10\/14\/uturdur-gives-iceland-what-it-wants-icelandic-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00dat\u00fardur Gives Iceland What it Wants [Icelandic Culture]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s one last guest post from the wonderful Amanda De Marco.<\/a> I want to publicly thank her for all of her contributions this week. I would send her a bottle of Brennivin<\/a> as a token of my appreciation, but that shit is DEATH<\/span>. For more of Amanda’s writings, be sure to check out Readux: Reading in Berlin.<\/a> She’s also a frequent contributor to Publishing Perspectives.<\/a> For now, here’s her article about the interesting bookstore and publisher, \u00dat\u00fardur.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I ask artists D\u00edsa Bj\u00f6rnsd\u00f3ttir and Ingvar H\u00f6gni Ragnarsson about running \u00dat\u00fard\u00far,1<\/a><\/sup> a Reykjavik bookstore and publisher, D\u00edsa tells me they \u201cstarted by answering a need for a more diverse book community.\u201d It\u2019s a theme they\u2019ll repeat again and again: filling a hole, giving society what it\u2019s asking for. For an American it\u2019s a somewhat dizzying prospect; whatever it is that my<\/em> society wants or needs or asks for, I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever had the feeling it was books.<\/em> Nor have I ever interviewed anyone who said anything similar.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a need that can exist in Iceland for two reasons. First, Iceland has a real, living literary culture with significant historical roots that results in people reading a lot today. Second, the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent governmental revolution made room for discussion in public forums, and made it necessary. Icelanders have a lot to talk about, and they\u2019ll probably be doing it for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u00dat\u00fard\u00far is located a bit off the main drag in downtown Reykjavik, and when I walk in for our interview a customer is enthusiastically talking to D\u00edsa and Ingvar H\u00f6gni in English about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The conversation doesn\u2019t sound anywhere near over, so I listen in and browse the books on the front table and displayed face-out on the racks. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re art books, chapbooks, hardcovers, many of them hand-made, some photocopied, in English, in Icelandic, in German, some published by \u00dat\u00fad\u00far, some by others, all of them in some way or another fascinating. I recognize a few books I\u2019ve seen in the sexier bookshops in Berlin, plus a few copies of McSweeney<\/i>\u2019s, and an odd Believer.<\/em> Other than that it\u2019s all new to me.<\/p>\n


\n(photo by Ingvar H\u00f6gni Ragnarsson)<\/p>\n

There are a few pieces of art here and there from an exhibition with Kling & Bang Gallery next door: an enormous felt hand hanging on the wall, a wine-rack stocked with nearly empty Coca-Cola bottles, a wood-framed plexiglass doghouse-thing filled with an inch or so of postcards and newspaper clippings and outfitted with pink neon lighting. <\/p>\n

We take a seat at the desk next to the plexiglass doghouse and I receive a cup of the strong Icelandic coffee everyone serves when I interview them. At 28 and 30 D\u00edsa and Ingvar H\u00f6gni have both recently completed their bachelor\u2019s (Iceland\u2019s system operates along long-studying Scandinavian lines). Ingvar H\u00f6gni, who also works as a photographer, attributes getting the chance to run an organization like \u00dat\u00fard\u00far to the small society they live in: \u201cWhat\u2019s so interesting about Iceland is we can have these opportunities and get involved just by having that energy and enthusiasm.\u201d Still he and D\u00edsa seem like the kind of intelligent, bright-eyed people who would be doing exciting things anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u00dat\u00fard\u00far was actually founded as a bookstore in by six artists in 2007, but during their tenure, D\u00edsa and Ingvar H\u00f6gni are shifting its focus. As D\u00edsa says, \u201cWhat Iceland is asking for is books relevant to society.\u201d Which is not to say that \u00dat\u00fard\u00far didn\u2019t provide that before, but its earlier publications, while often political, were expensive art books with long lead times. Its newer publications will be published more quickly to connect better with current events, and they\u2019ll be more affordable. <\/p>\n

Meeting the needs of a community means being in touch with the people who constitute it. \u201cWe don\u2019t think of \u00dat\u00fard\u00far as just a store or a publishing house,\u201d says Ingvar H\u00f6gni. \u201cWe think of it as a place where you can come and meet people, read, and listen to recordings.\u201d <\/p>\n

Later that week I return, this time at night, for a 100,000 Poets for Change event \u00dat\u00fad\u00far is hosting. I admit I was nervous before showing up \u2014 in a city of 120,000 people, how many capable performers can there be, and how many people will want to watch them? At eight there\u2019s a crowd of 20 or so that grows during the next hour until the shop is packed. The audience is convivial but attentive, listening through hours of readings and musical performances. The performers have real talent, and overall the event is really impressive. When I leave at 11, it shows no sign of slowing down. <\/p>\n

If it\u2019s community-focused, \u00dat\u00fard\u00far is anything but inward-looking. Ingvar H\u00f6gni and D\u00edsa are enthusiastic about partnerships with bookstores and publishers overseas, and they were positively excited about their upcoming trip to the New York Art Book Fair (now past). For ambitious young people trying to develop an innovative organization on a small island just below the Arctic Circle, the opportunity to meet with their peers face to face and to \u201cmake that connection and develop that trust\u201d is invaluable, according to D\u00edsa. <\/p>\n

1<\/sup> \u00dat\u00fardur means “detour.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s one last guest post from the wonderful Amanda De Marco. I want to publicly thank her for all of her contributions this week. I would send her a bottle of Brennivin as a token of my appreciation, but that shit is DEATH. For more of Amanda’s writings, be sure to check out Readux: Reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[43346,43216,42996,43506],"class_list":["post-287596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-amanda-de-marco","tag-icelandic-culture","tag-icelandic-week","tag-uturdur"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342676,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287596\/revisions\/342676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}