"Harpa, Húsið þitt"

This is the slogan on the publicity materials about Harpa, the beautiful, recently opened concert hall in Reykjavík. It reflects the hope of the designers that Icelanders will see it as "your house"--which it is, since the financing of the building was taken over by the public after the financial crisis. The building of course was controversial in the wake of the crisis, given the expense of such a project. But the artist, Ólafur Elíasson, expressed his hope that the building be seen as belonging to the Icelandic people in a recent extended and very interesting interview with the English language newspaper The Grapevine.  It is a slogan that our two year old has taken to heart; whenever we are downtown, he has expressed his desire to "Harpa, go!"


Like everyone in Reykjavík, we have been watching the construction of Harpa since our arrival in January.  Of course the structure by then was basically completed, though this spring we have had the additional excitement of the facade needing replacement (on which, see the Grapevine story noted above). Harpa construction has had everything that a two year old could want: cranes! diggers! dump trucks!  And so we have been frequent visitors to the exterior of the Harpa building site, even before the building opened in May.  

January 2011 viewed from Arnarhóll

January 2011

March 8, 2011

May 1, 2011.  Yes, that is snow on the ground.
We were sledding on the hill.

We have now been to two lovely concerts, one in Eldborg, the main hall, and one in Kaldalón.  And we have been in the building many more times; it has wide hallways with fun places to sit, it has a great view of the harbor, the light is wonderful, always changing, and it has escalators!

Riding the escalator June 16.

May 13, 2011

May 13 2011.

The first concerts were May 4th through 6th, and the official inaugural concerts were the next weekend, May 13th through 15th.  On May 6, right after a concert, my husband visited the building, and the security guards let him look around, no problem.  But on May 13th, a few hours before the official inaugural concert, we tried to visit and were turned away at the door by security.  Evidently there was heightened security since some rather unpopular people including the original financier behind Harpa, which entity failed as a result of the financial crisis, were going to be present at the concert, according to this post on the Iceland Weather Report.  We still enjoyed looking around the outside of the building, though it was a bit disconcerting that there were so many heavy machines still doing their work.

The west side with a view of the boats.

But since then, we have been in the building and enjoyed its beauty and light, and the continuing presence of construction equipment, many times.  Yesterday, during Iceland's national independence day celebrations (Þjóðhátíðardagur), we were among the many people who went into the building just to see it and enjoy it. Feeling a part of the process of Harpa opening has been a lovely part of our experience here. So we hope the space and all that it will be as people enjoy it over time truly comes to be seen as the house that belongs to all of the people of Iceland.

Looking up from near the first floor stairway.

There are places to splash out front!

It must be Þjóðhátíðardagur
 if there are antique cars.

Nice places to relax in the
midst of celebrating June 17. 

The cafe has a children's table, of course.

And there is still plenty of construction equipment to see.

First Week of Lent in Reykjavik

In addition to International Women's Day, last week was also the first week of Lent, and so we enjoyed learning about Icelandic traditions, and joining in where possible.  Thanks to our landlady, Jytte, we were able to read the section of Saga Daganna by Árni Björnsson in English that discusses the history of many celebrations in Iceland.

So Monday was bolludagur, or "bun day".  Björnsson says that documents from the 13th century indicate that people in Iceland began their observation of Lent by refraining from eating meat for the two days prior to Ash Wednesday.  But bolludagur dates from the 19th century (Björnsson suggest it may have been promoted by Norwegian and Danish bakers) and involves in particular a bun with whipped cream in the middle and chocolate glaze on top.

Our version was not necessarily the most beautiful but it helped us participate in the day.  Bakeries turn out thousands of these for the bolludagur; the grocery stores also sell prepackaged buns, so that all one needs to do is add the whipped cream and the chocolate glaze. This was our method, though we did whip the cream ourselves.