Iceland comes calling to Delhi

This week, get a glimpse of the culture of Iceland at an ongoing festival. On at the Max Mueller Bhavan is an exhibition of Icelandic literature and artwork, movies and also an installation by India-based artist and architect Gudjon Bjarnason, a native of Iceland.

This week, get a glimpse of the culture of Iceland at an ongoing festival. On at the Max Mueller Bhavan is an exhibition of Icelandic literature and artwork, movies and also an installation by India-based artist and architect Gudjon Bjarnason, a native of Iceland.

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Bjarnason, who divides his time between Puducherry, Bangalore, Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) and New York, works for three leading fashion houses in India and designs commercial buildings in southern India. He blends his Indian sensibilities and 20 years of experience in American and Nordic art to create sculptures, abstract drawings and digital prints.

“I like India. It is a marvel of an inspiration. I like the way art and architecture come together in India,” says Bjarnason. As for his artwork, he says, “I use at least seven different kinds of explosives like C4, nitrate-based explosives and Flex-X to blast and distort metals to create new forms that represent chaos.”

Complementing Bjarnason’s art is a selection of Nordic literature by contemporary writers from Iceland that exhibit a similar sense of chaos seen in modern Icelandic art and a pre-occupation with history and changing human relations; typical to the Nordic perceptions.