Elísabet Jökulsdóttir & Dagur Hjartarson: Moon-Night N°XIII

20.10.2021

21:30

–23:00

The moon speaks for the night, the sunken rocks, the pale light and deserted islands.

Tunglið publishing house celebrates the fact that the day is short and the night long with the publication of two new original Moon Books by the honorary artist of Sequences x, Elísabeta Kristín Jökulsdóttir and Dagur Hjartarson. The books are published in 69 copies each.

On Moon-nights, books are read aloud, music is played, performances are performed. The two new Moon-books are for sale for the duration of the evening’s program, and at midnight any unsold copies are put to the flames and burned, in accordance with tradition, as Moon Books only live for a moment. 

Moon Books are outside categories, neither this nor that. They are slightly smaller than regular books in terms of format and also different in content. Moon-nights are a channel for publishing fiction that otherwise wouldn’t easily find it’s way in the world of traditional book publishing. Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson og Dagur Hjartarson are the editors of Tunglið publishing house.

The honorary artist of Sequences X – Time Has Come is Elísabet Kristín Jökulsdóttir. Elísabet has the ability to weave threads between various forms of art and she uses her voice to tell it like it is but also to remind us of the magic. Elísabet’s possesses the language of the goddess and she appears to us in different images, creating and destroying in turn, she on the inside and the outside and dances on the line between. In her work, Elísabet is analytical of her own self and the nation’s and she deals with the Utopian role of art as a shifting force in society. Her strength lies in the dynamic and diverse relationship she has to her viewers and listeners, where she herself is like a public work of art, constantly stirring the ideas of the society and thus stirring time and participating in the endless recreation of the world.

The moon demands fiction and Tunglið publishing responds to this call by publishing Moon-books. On Moon-nights, all the doors are open, all the time, because the pale light of the moon spares no one. Moon-Books are outside categories, neither this nor that. They are slightly smaller than regular books in terms of format and also different in content. Moon-nights are a channel for publishing fiction that otherwise wouldn’t easily find its way in the world of traditional book publishing.

Dagur Hjartarson (b. 1986) studied Icelandic literature and creative writing at the University of Iceland and works currently as a teacher. His first book, the poetry collection Þar sem vindarnir hvílast (2012), won the Icelandic.

Ragnar Helgi Ólafsson (b. 1971) is a visual artist and author. He has written six books, received the Tómas Guðmundsson-Prize and been nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize two times over. His books are published in translations in France (Edition Passages) and Germany (Elif verlag). Ragnar Helgi has exhibited his artwork and done performances in Europe and North America in spaces such as MoMA PS1, KIASMA and Kunsthalle Wien. His work has been covered in The Guardian, BBC World Service, Libération and The New York Times to name a few. He runs the publishing house Tunglið forlag as well as being the editor of Ljóðbréf – a journal of poetry. Along with his artistic practice, Ragnar Helgi teaches part-time at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, plays in various bands and does graphic design work. He lives and works in Reykjavik.