Wond­erland: Work in Progress with Unnar Örn

Questions arise concerning historiography, value assessment and power systems; what is preserved, by whom and for what purpose?

Unnar Örn gets access to a unique collection that is still underexplored and therefore has an equivocal meaning. The National Museum of Iceland holds this special collection, the so-called Ásbúðarsafn, with around 20,000 objects. Andrés J. Johnson in Ásbúð in Hafnarfjörður (1885-1965) bequeathed it to the museum, but at the time he was considered one of the greatest collectors of memorabilia in the country. From a young age he collected all kinds of things, e.g. postcards, badges, money, banknotes, stamps and countless other small things that he came across from day to day.

Wonderland is a project dedicated to the history of Ásmundarsafn. This was the home and studio of sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson (1893-1982), which he designed himself and built in the years 1942-1950. The plot was adjacent to a farm called Undraland (Wonderland). Ásmundur bequeathed the house and his works to the city of Reykjavik after his day, and a museum dedicated to his memory was established there in 1983. During the four decades that the artist worked in the house, it was a scene of vibrant artistic creation. Throughout the year 2025, artists are invited to elaborate on their own works in progress or any state of flux.

Unnar Örn Jónasson Auðarson was born in 1974 in Reykjavík. He graduated from the Iceland University of Arts in 1999 and completed his master's degree at Malmö Art Academy in 2003. Unnar Örn‘s lates exhibtion was in the Glass House, entitled Museum of Amnesia.