World journey with paint brush and color

Until November 9, Hangar-7 in Salzburg is exhibiting contemporary painting from Iceland. Curator Lioba Reddeker dispels (not only) in an interview the threshold fear about the encounter with art.

Picasso said: “Art is a lie that allows us to discover the truth.” What truths does “Hérna,” the new exhibition in Hangar-7 reveal?

That’s something that each visitor has to find out for themselves!

“Hérna” presents contemporary painting from Iceland. How did an independent art scene develop in a country with only 300,000 inhabitants?

One could perhaps ascribe the immense quantity of creativity to the century-long isolation of the island people, to the lively relationship they have with their ancient language or to the often present darkness that forces them to occupy themselves. Apart from that, the island itself is very creative: there are constant volcano eruptions and new mountains are formed. All this needs names and faces. Nothing in Iceland, starting with the weather, is steady – and that will also always force people to react with fantasy and creativity.

Before Iceland, art from Austria, China, Spain, New York, Russia, South Africa and Mexico was exhibited in Hangar-7. Where is the appeal of using a geographic boundary as parentheses for an exhibition?

In the most defined way, in the possibility that slowly unfoldered of comparing these countries. On the one hand, I continue to discover strong characteristics in works and artistic modes of expression whose creation only seems possible in one location. But on the next journey, with the next exhibition, I learn something and find parallel themes and motives in a way that I would never expect. With globalization, everything is coming closer together – also the questions that the artists deal with, whether they live in South Africa or Iceland.

Is there a work in the current exhibition that particularly moved or impressed you?

It isn’t so easy to commit oneself – but the picture “Egg” by Helgi Thorgils impressed me very much when I first saw it. And I can’t say exactly why, even now. It has to do with the painting technique, with the wonderful light gray-silver surface … But also with the surprising composition: a water bird who is admiring the egg (its own?), from under which a human finger sticks out. The head of the bird is reflected in the egg, which envelops the entire painting surface ... A very secretive history is being told here.

As curator you’re responsible for all the artists and their works. What do artists have to activate within you in order to have their works shown in Hangar-7?

The feeling that something very independent or headstrong will be created, that the artists don’t let themselves be mislead – even when he or she doesn’t exactly know where the work is going. I have to feel that it’s about a type of existential truth of life in art. Then the most important step has already been made.

And how does the fundamental concept develop – why now Iceland, why Mexico before?

This choice of countries comes from a combination of pragmatic, content and non-material motives, but then partly also has to do in an ‘unconstructed’ way with where my idea, my intuition takes me. Partly, I observe the art scene for a while, or have conversations with friends or colleagues about exciting new developments among the young artists. The stir created in the art scene in Mexico, for example, was very fresh when I went there to prepare the exhibition, and the great success of the exhibition ultimately showed that it was fairly perfect timing!

Many people find it hard to connect with art – also through the elite image that many art galleries project. What can Hangar-7 do in order to dispel the threshold fear about the encounter with contemporary art?