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Culture Night 2023 – Reykjavik City Museum
It will be culturally inspiring as always to visit Reykjavík City Museum venues for Culture Night where people of all ages get to know and enjoy the history that our society is based on.
The Settlement Exhibition and Reykjavík ... the story continues are family-friendly and informative exhibitions representing Reykjavík's history from settlement to the present day. Visitors get an insight into the complex history and culture of Reykjavík through the development of house construction and planning with a stop at the oldest house in the city centre, Aðalstræti 10. For Culture Night, guests can participate in the museum‘s scavenger hunt called Baktus and the Ghost Cat in Aðalstræti and discover the cultural and historical backdrop in an exciting way. Viking dreams can come true in the costume corner at the exhibition, and those who want to try their hand at being a Water Carrier can help us carry water from the well Ingólfsbrunnur and to Fótgetagarð. In the evening, guests will learn how an old traditional Viking mead is brewed, which is not to be confused with brewing beer. Brewers from Öldur Brewery will enlighten guests about this tradition and give them a taste of the precious mead. The exhibition will be home to the magical world of smooth jazz music when Rebekka Blöndal and Karl Olgeirsson will perform for guests at 20.00 o´clock. They will play heartwarming old-school jazz songs, duets and more.
At the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, the curators Sigríður Kristín and Gísli will give an exhibition talk on the exhibition And now in full colour! │Colour photographs from the museum's collection, 1950-1970 currently on show at the museum. The black-and-white world that can be seen in pictures until that time is an illusion. Life was undoubtedly in colour, the clothes colourful, the cars turquoise, burgundy, even yellow, red, or green roofs – the sky all kinds of blue! The colour palette of the time is ever-changing, shaped by fashion, technology, memories, and zeitgeist, even by the medium itself.
Julia Hectman's exhibition Not Once opens in Skotið, but her work focuses on the balance of absence and presence, life and death, and real-time and memorized experience. The natural world features prominently in her works, which has allowed her to travel extensively and to contemplate the familiar in new ways.
The evening comes to a close when the renowned band LANGI SELI OG SKUGGARNIR will play for the visitors. They play their original music which can be characterised as a powerful rockabilly with a particularly modern approach. Their music fits perfectly with the colour palette now on display in the museum and is a fitting ending to a colourful Culture Night at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography!
Maritime Museum, a particularly informative and diverse exhibition, can be enjoyed in the museum's exhibition Fish & Folk - 150 Years of fisheries. The varied presentation of the exhibition offers something suitable for everyone, as interactive games delight some, and the tranquillity of astronomy invites others into the amazing world of sailing and ships through the ages.
The Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn is finally back at the Museum Pier and open to visitors extensive work on the Pier. Former seamen and loyal friends welcome everyone aboard the Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn from 13.00 to 18.00 on Culture Night. Óðinn played an important role in the so-called cod wars between Iceland and Britain and is one of the Maritime Museum’s main exhibitions.
Soft Collective presents a dance piece inspired by the visual works of the exhibition We are Earth - We are Water, where three dancers move around the space in constant conversation and interaction with the visuals projected on its walls. The work deals with the changes occurring in nature and everywhere around us now, as well as how these changes are reflected in ourselves. The work will take place throughout the space and all around the audience, who are free to come and go as they wish.
The fabulous accordion band BLÆR will visit the Maritime Museum in Reykjavik in the afternoon. If you are ready to rumba, do the samba or even cha, cha, cha, this is the place to be! The fun continues when the musicians Benni Sig. and friends will be playing at a dance in the Pier Hall. The program of Sailor waltzes, reel, and polka, along with well-known Icelandic songs, provides a chance to dance your shoes off.
In a nutshell:
Aðalstræti 10 – 16
10:00-22:00 The Settlement Exhibition – Step into the Viking Age
10:00-22:00 Reykjavík ... the story continues.
10:00-22:00 A Scavenger Hunt – Baktus and the Ghost Cat
10:00-18:00 Find your inner Viking! Open Viking costume corner
14:00-15:00 Step into the role of a Water Carrier on Culture Night
19:00-21:00 Mead brewing – Viking Style!
20:00-20:40 Jazz with Rebekka and Karl!
Reykjavík Museum of Photography
13:00-22:00 Exhibition – And now in full colour! │Colour photographs from the museum's collection, 1950-1970
14:00-15:00 And now in full colour! – Exhibition talk
17:00-22:00 Opening in Skotið: Not Once
20:00-22:00 Dance party: Langi Seli og Skuggarnir
Maritime Museum
10:00-22:00 Exhibition – Fish & Folk – 150 years of fisheries
10:00-22:00 Exhibition – We are Earth - We are Water.
13:00-15:30 Welcome Aboard the Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn!
14:00/14:45/15:30 Dance performance – Soft Collective // We are Earth - We are Water.
16:00-18:00 Are you ready to rumba? – Blær
20:00-21:30 Dancing at the Pier! A dance with Benni Sig and company
Free admission, and everyone are welcome.
Reykjavík City Museum – one museum in five unique places.