Head 2 Head
NOVEMBER 5 @ 7:00 PM – NOVEMBER 14 @ 7:00 PM 2021
HEAD2HEAD is a visual art festival connecting the two dynamic and ever-expanding art scenes of Athens and Reykjavik. The project aims to create fertile ground for the two art scenes to connect, build bridges and networks through an artistic dialog and exhibition exchange.The two art scenes share the particular culture of a thriving artist-run community that works as a driving force, fuelling a dynamic and vibrant art scene. Connecting these two kindred art scenes are the artist-run A – DASH (GR) and Kling & Bang (IS) collaborating with 11 artist-run spaces in Athens showcasing the works of 45 Greek and Iceland-based artists. HEAD2HEAD Athens is the first phase of a bilateral visual art festival. The second phase of the project takes place in Reykjavík in 2024, bringing Athens-based artists to Reykjavík with a parallel exhibition program in various artist-run exhibition spaces in Reykjavík.
Logi Leó Gunnarsson (b. 1990) graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in the spring of 2014. His works usually take sound as their starting point. With his sculptures and installations he often works around the idea of a moment. That includes spotting a loop in a movement, isolating it, giving it undivided attention and shedding light on both the unexpected and the mundane. Selected exhibitions include Sound & Proof Soup Bowl at Gallery Port in Reykjavík, Addis Video Art Festival in Addis Ababa, Things interact briefly and disappear at Harpe 45 in Lausanne and Deep Inside: the fifth international Biennale for young artists in Moscow. He currently lives and works in Reykjavík.
Ólöf Helga Helgadóttir (b.1972) graduated from Iceland University of the Arts in 2005 and completed a Masters in Visual Art from Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2010. In 2001 she studied at the Icelandic Film School. Ólöf lives and works in Siglufjörður, Iceland. In her work Ólöf pushes everyday material out of its traditional role, shedding unexpected light upon a familiar point of view. The material that she uses often has historical significance that is very personal.
Recent exhibitions include: Shaken dust on stone, Sculpture / Sculpture in Gerðarsafn – Kópavogur Art Museum, 2020; The Line, Sequences IX – Really in Harbinger Project Space, 2019; Bodies, materials and spaces in Reykjanes Art Museum, 2018.
Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir (b. 1987) is an artist and poet. Among other things, she works with notes, sounds and words in her works, as well as performances. Her work often revolves around the unexpected and ridiculous, erasing the borders between different media. In 2018, she displayed her performance Lunar-10.13 & Gáta Nórensu at the Reykjavík Arts Festival, where poetry, music, installations and performances merged into one. Her works include a cod opera, humming choir piece, sound poetry choir piece and a vowel composition. Her latest book is called Gluggi – draumskrá (Window – Dream Register) and contains a list of dreams. Ásta has performed her compositions, poetry and performances at various festivals and exhibitions in Iceland and abroad. She received the Kópavogur poetry prize in 2017 and was nominated for Bernard Heidsieck literary prize, Pompidou in 2021.
Vasilis Zarifopoulos lives and works in Athens, Greece. He studied in the University of Aegean and in Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he received his Master from Rita McBride. His artistic practice is diverse in different mediums with an autobiographical context and high interest in communication design and contemporary social issues. Vasilis is seeking collaborations combining curating and art-making and blurring the limitations of each practice, aiming in creating situations and studying relations and their social context. He exhibited among others in Sub Rosa, Arcade Gallery, Villa Empain, Life Sport, PAN, Parkhaus, MACBA, Malkasten, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Artists exhibiting in OMS: Logi Leo Gunnarsson, Ólöf Helga Helgadóttir and Vasilis Zarifopoulos