BadTaste4ever!

Bad Taste 4 Ever is an evening of art of edge cutting, music and literature. Everything is possible during the night as there will be a crossing of cultures, disciplines and people.

Did we forget to put into the first sentence that we all come from Iceland?

Yes we think so. And we did so. We all come from Iceland as if it matters, it does in our case as we speak foreign.We don’t act foreign.

We are at home at Bozar, giving our best, showing our best, and being our worst!

The date is set for this event: 30.04.2008 & those confirmed for the evening have posted here on the blog:

Byrkir

Byrkir has been fighting the Devil for as long as he can can remember . He is currently in hell, screaming at the Beast but without making any sounds what so ever . This can be hard . But his love is strong and his mind is set . His weapon of choice in this great battle is a manipulated icelandic tounge witch  he will use without hesitation at every oppurtunity, at every foe .Love him because he loves you to .Friður .

Lay Low

 

The inimitable husky tones of Iceland’s Lay Low to hit the headlines will penetrate your heart as fast your ears.  Combining kooky northern charm with smoky bar-room blues, Lay Low has taken the Icelandic music scene by storm and is all set to blow a few minds across the sea as well.

Described as a country-blues balladeer and a breath of fresh air, Lay Low is in fact the 24-year-old Lovisa Elisabet.  Her debut album “Please Don´t Hate Me” has been topping the Icelandic charts since its release in October 2006, delighting the country’s critics and music lovers alike.  The album was the most sold original album in Iceland 2006 and is reaching platinum every minute now.  Nominated for four of the 2006 Icelandic Music Awards, Lay Low received more nominations than any other musician, which is pretty cool and she eventually went home with 3 awards.

Lay Low’s rapid rise to relative stardom has a touch of fairytale magic to it.  She quietly uploaded a few songs onto “MySpace” and within a very short time things started to take off.  Longtime friend and musician Magnús Öder co-produced the album with Lovisa, mixing the final sounds of keyboards, slide-guitar and banjo among others, playing many of the instruments himself.  Her other longtime friends Bassi and Sibbi played drums and banjo on the album and all of them three;  Magnus, Bassi and Sibbi join her live.

An intoxicating mixture of blues, country and a gentle sound all of her own, Lay Low has attracted a lot of well deserved attention with “Please Don’t Hate Me”, an impressive debut by anyone’s standards.  “Beautiful arrangements, a natural charm, sincere soulful blues and bare bone ballads” – the praise continues to flow from many quarters for this distinctive singer/songwriter who hails from Reykjavik.

With a musical maturity beyond her years, Lay Low has delivered some fine compositions.  Authentic and compelling, her live performances create a stir to match that surrounding the recorded offerings.  The world beckons, so watch out for her on tour in your neck of the woods.  Laid back she may be, but Lovisa and her boys won’t be allowed to lay low for very long.

Lay Low has been traveling the world this year performing at Midem in Cannes, by:Larm in Norway, The Great Escape in Brighton, Los Angeles, New York, London, PopKomm plus a UK tour in November/December.

 

On top of all this above then Lay Low made her debut appearance in theater when she took on the role as music director for the Pulitzer Prize play “How I Learned to Drive” written by Paula Vogel.  Not only did Lay Low write the music for the play but ended up performing it on stage with great reviews.  The play has been sold out from show one and stopped for a full house at the end of February.  The play was staged at the theater in Akureyri which is on the north side of Iceland.  The music from the play has just been released on CD and it includes five new original tracks in Icelandic from Lay Low plus eight Dolly Parton cover in Lay Low style.  Its been an instant hit and its just embarrasing how much its played on the radio . . .

Lay Low has already started work on her next album.  She went to London in February to work with producer Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios.  They did two tracks together to feel the vibe on each other and vibe was good so a full album session is scheduled in June.

 

www.myspace.com/baralovisa

Riceboy Sleeps

Riceboy Sleeps are the two Iceland based artists Alex Somers and Jon Thor Birgisson, jointly authoring works on paper as we well as video works and soundscapes.

Riceboy work from found objects, this is done both in reference to Icelandic rooting as well as Beuysian aesthetics. It is fair to say that Riceboy’s work begins with the written word, in old books specifically. Yet it is not the contents of the books but their visual appearance, their markings and traces of being used, which lead on to their drawings being layered on top of the worn pages. The drawings in turn are photographed and inserted in old window frames, withered from the elements with their layers of chipped paint and the drips of old paint and dust on the glass exposed.The result of this process are poetic slight-handed drawings of boyhood memories traced on the remnants of quite literally a house. The work speaks of innocence and an intact world order, with time passing over the memory in changing seasons. The objects speak of beauty. One could leave it at that as the works are in many ways simply enchanting.

Riceboy construct their works from multiple sources and multiple meanings. They belie the simplicity of the result. The meanings are meticulously unearthed akin to an archealogical dig, the delapidation of the book pages is given a new meaning by the addition of the drawings, which in turn function like a graffiti scrawl. The drawings grow out of stains in the book, their fast and unfinished strokes are not authored by one but two artists, we do not find out which. Other markings appear, notes, unfinished words, numbers. We do not find out who added them and when. They give the torn pages new meanings. But rather than being complete messages they are encrypted, made sometime in the past or recently, like the dust gathered on the windowframes they shift, transmute form other markings. The objects become performative, or in contemporary terms like animations.

Riceboy Sleeps are a collective of two artists and by default,as found object are used, by other unnamed authors, who all contribute to the works. They are symbols of collective memory or rather representations of snippets of memory. By turning the drawings and notes on book pages into a photograph, the first part of the work is fixed at some point, yet when being inserted into the windowframes with their markings and stains the process begins again to the point where the works become open-ended ciphers.

Riceboy’s videos function along the same collage technique of piecing together found super8 footage, allowing for the flickering of spliced filmtape to form new marks or rhythmic incisions which in turn are overlayed with sound elements to form dreamlike sequences. The sound here is incidental as it becomes another mark made over someone else’s memory.

The complete absence of subjectivity is “ a little Piece of the Real” in the sense of Slavoij Žižek, whereby the stain becomes the subject itself. Riceboy Sleeps works emerge from post-modern thinking by offering endless possibilities of interpretation, allowing for the collective unconscious to become part of the continuing ritual of reading and re-reading the marks.

Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason

Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason (b. 1977) is an icelandic, poet, writer, musician and artist. He has published two books in his native language, Gamall þrjótur, nýjir tímar (“Old villain, new times”) a book of poetry was published in 2005 as a part of Nýhil’s Nordic Literature series. It was preceded by the critically acclaimed novella Úfin, strokin (“Ruffled, stroked /Tangled, preened”), released in 2005 and described as “a detective boy novel updated for modern girls”. Recently he published a book of artwork in Japan, To fruits turn the youth accompanied by English and Japanese translations of his poetry. Örvar is a founding and active member of Icelandic experimental band múm, but is also known for his work with other bands such as Benni Hemm Hemm, Singapore Sling, Slowblow, Skakkamanage, Borko, FM Belfast and the legendary Reprasensitive Man. As a member of múm he has worked in various media, writing for theater, film and radio and collaborated with national orchestras, as well as with avant-garde beatniks. He studied screenwriting at FAMU in Prague. Örvar has taken part in various collective art shows, as well as having three solo shows of artwork in galleries in Japan in the past two years. Örvar goes swimming every day and enjoys eating things with a spoon.

Ragnar Kjartansson Murdering Saga

Ragnar Kjartansson is born 1976. He was conceived on the set of Iceland’s first erotic thriller called “Morðsaga”. In the movie there is a love scene where his mother plays a lonely housewife and his father a plumber coming to fix the dishwasher.

So right from the begining his life has been surrounded by acting and actors, make belive and showbiz wich are essential elements in his art.

Ragnar gratuated from the Reykjavík Housewife school in 1997 and from the Icelandic Art Academy in 2001. He has held some twelve solo exhibitions and participated in over thirty groupshows. In his art Ragnar works simultaniously in performances, video, paintings and sculpture.

Ragnar has also been in active in Reykjavík’s music scene with bands such as Kosý, Kanada, Funerals and Trabant. Ragnar will represent Iceland in the Venice Bienale in 2009.

Daníell in the Sea

 This is the video Daníell in the Sea from Riceboy Sleeps

Hrafnkell Sigurðsson

Hrafnkell Sigurdsson’s work examines the transitory elements in man’s relationship with nature and plays with ideas of reversal and ritual. His photographic series include images of empty tents in the snow, houses under construction, garbage bags in the streets, and most recently, portraits of trash.

Retrön

Staring out as a video game, then as a visual buffalo fest, Retrön now is a full blown rock and roll band with visual buffalo frying elements. Thunderous spiritual drumming combined with two guitars called Volume and Loudness.

Think of Thin Lizzy and Lightning Bolt combined with a Nintendo cartridge about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The essence of pure overdose of death itself.

The visual part is best described as epilepsy with fantasy elements

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl

Eirikur Örn Norðdahl is an Icelandic novelist and poet. In the recent years he has explored the possibilities inherent in the European and North-American avant-garde traditions, and focused on disassembling language into it visual, social and linguistic units. He has published two novels and four and a half books of poetry. His latest collection is Waiter there is a Phoenix in my Ashtray, published by Nýhil in2007..

Hljóðaljóð
Vídjóljóð
English Recital in Oslo
Myndljóðabók (250X250cm)

And spanking new website http://www.norddahl.org/

Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir

Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir: bourgeoise poet and former militant mailman.
Has published one book of poetry, Blótgælur (2007).

caressing myself with a Bacardi machine gun
hangover crawling like sun lotion
I´ll see you in action movies
perhaps on mountain tops

a frame made of poet
removed from
a sugarcoated mine

me and idealistic girls
used to many things
slender or bearded
puberty

we seek intestines
from sugarcoated mines

Finnbogi Pétursson

My works are an acoustic image of the present. They look at time. What is actually happening now when movement occurs? The feedback phenomenon is used as a very decisive time factor in my work. I have been preoccupied chasing things that one doesn’t notice but are present nevertheless, such as radio waves, light and sound.

I attempt to obtain these and make shapes out of them, directed at specific, previously-decided routes which I choose, to a particular space and in a particular arrangement in the space. Wave transmission is so much a part of the air that we see nothing else if they are made visible, as the air is packed with these waves.

More

Ghostigital

Ghostigital purveyors of quality silence, preaching the gospel of the thundering sparkles. Its members Einar Örn and Curver do not call everything their grandmother. With electric tongues and elastic words they emit sounds not unfamiliar to pouring cereals onto milk in a bowl.

They have recorded two albums, Ghostigital and In Cod We Trust and just relesed Radium with Finnbogi Pétursson. Currently they are recording their 3rd album in Reykjavik and New York with guests Alan Vega and King Buzzo.

Steintryggur

Steintryggur is a collaboration between rhythm afficianados Sigtryggur Baldursson and Steingrimur Guðmundsson where they channel their inspirations and run them through the blender of Australian Ben Frost.

The new CD “trappa” mixes together the duos organic beats and all sorts of instrumental flavors like turkish stringmaster Hadji Tekbilek on oud and saz, and features the vocal talents of Huun Huur Tu from Tuva and the Skálholt Childrens Choir from Iceland.

Experimental music has never been less boring.

http://www.siberia.is/steintryggur/trappa/player.html
www.myspace.com/steintryggur

Ásdís Sif

“Icelandic performance based artist, Asdis Sif Gunnarsdottir creates beautiful and complex sets to create a physical state of mind. Her installations are an excerpt from her cinematic performances. They are filled with random items such as mirrors, ribbons, glitter and many times include projections both on the walls and floor. As she notes, “I feel that there is a constant flow between performance and video art. I often bring performance into my installations, like dress up in the same colors as the work, and just lie on the floor like a ghost while the viewers walk by.”

Her narratives are aesthetically beautiful and emotionally complex. The underlying mood of these “video poems” is captured by the vibrant reds, blues and greens reflected against the dark aura of the Icelandic winter. On ocassion, she seems to have popped up from a Japanese Manga or from the Scandinavian version of heroine multi-media goddess, Lara Croft. Asdis never drifts out of character and masterfully combines the Nordic sense of melancholia with fantasy and wit as she deals with her refusal of leaving the “girl”. ”

Mariangela Capuzzo
Independent Curator

Ingibjörg Magnadóttir

Ingibjörg has worked with theatre,  performances and visual art. She wants to combine these skills to make a
theatre where the writer and the scenograf are performing. Also to take the performance out of the
gallery and onto the stage it instead.

She wants to tear down the pyramid of power structure within theatre, it is a navigation that is important at this point theatrically, poetically and artistically.
She has for a long time concentrated on God in the works, using the Qunantum universe as a gate.

Ragnar Kjartansson

“I will show a video of mine “Guilt Trip”. It is a ten minute long video piece which shows Iceland´s most loved comedian Laddi walking through a highland wilderness in winter. He is wearing a dark coat, holds a yellow bag and is shooting into nothingness with a powerful shotgun.
PERFORMANCE
During the Bad Taste night I will be performing with various artists. Then I am planning a live performance during the evening. It will be technically simple but may require a sound system and a mic and one spotlight”

DJ Magic

Gísli Galdur Thorgeirsson is a DJ and a musician. He´s been in several bands such as Trabant, Ghostigital and Motion Boys as well as working on his own solo stuff. He often plays with weird sounds and heavy beats and uses amongst others the scratch form to deliver it to the ears of public. He has played many concerts all around the world and collaborated with musician´s, dj´s and artist´s of all sorts of kind.

Stilluppsteypa

Stilluppsteypa is a duo of soundsculpture and visual artists (Helgi Thorsson and Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson) known for collaborating with a wide range of experimental musicians. The group has worked with The Hafler Trio, Nurse With Wound, Zoviet France, and Stock, Hausen, and Walkman. Their music is improvised for the most part, andthey have no qualms about using any sound source they can get theirhands on. What makes Stilluppsteypa unique is their ability to meld disparate elements together to make interesting and cohesive compositions.

Techno Witch

Techno Witch is a collaboration between the artist Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir and the musician Gísli Galdur Thorgeirsson alias DJ Magic. Ásdís Sif has been working with visuals, performances and installations in her works.Gísli Galdur is a known DJ and a musician in several bands such as Trabant, Ghostigital and Motion Boys.Through the power of the pounding bass drum and weird sounds Techno Witch speaks her prophecy and explores the future.