What's on in Andri's mind

POSTCARDS FROM REYKJAVÍK

Article published in the UNA Magazine - World Wide Friends (http://wf.is/news/)

Andri Magnason in the powerstation - Fotografia: Eugènia Güell Barnils

In Iceland there are pigs everywhere: in the bread, in the ham, in the chocolate, even in the sweepers. Why? Well, the cheapest supermarket chain, called Bónus, has a pig as a logo, and it is becoming an Icelandic emblem. This is why Andri Magnason, a man so difficult to describe just in one word, thought: “Bónus makes everything… except for poetry. So, how would the cover of a Bónus poetry book look like?” At first it didn´t make any sense, but it was coherent in Andri’s mind. “Everyone participates in the market and studies to sell something in it. But what happens with the poets?” So basically, he wanted to know what would happen if poetry was given to the consumer just like bananas are, just like a product. This way, poets wouldn’t be important people (they are usually so-well considered in Iceland), just like everybody else, selling products. He was sure that this work would be the ugliest and the less interesting book someone could ever read. So in 1996, he wrote it. “I got inspired by Dante Alighieri`s novel, The Divine Comedy: Paradise compared to fruit, Hell to meat products Purgatory compared to the cleaning products”. The book was sold out. Bonus Poetry Book

The only person who could ever come up with this idea was Andri Magnason. He lives in Reykjavík, and we met in a very surrealistic place I would say, though Magnason described it as “beautifully ugly”: an old powerstation that had to be demolished. Andri used to walk around it: “I was always afraid of this building because it’s scary and full of electric warning signs.” But as he says, “you can create value with your point of view”, so he decided to think of the philosophy of the building, and now this old powerstation is a place for doing work collaboration, starts up, exhibitions and small concerts. He has contributed with different architects to think about the use of different spaces. “I thought this would be a good space to take over and make something fun.”

Actually, Andri’s mind seems to be so fun. He gets to the powerstation by bike and walks upstairs, with the helmet still put on, and making brrrrrmmmmmm brrrrmmmm with his mouth. He takes a look at the newspaper.

- Have you heard? Justin Bieber is coming to Iceland! –he says jokingly.

- Do you like Justin Bieber?

- I liked him last year, now I think he is too in the mainstream.

- Really?

- No, I’m kidding.

Powerstation - Fotografia: Eugènia Güell Barnils

He’s 43 years old and he doesn’t like Justin Bieber, that’s not weird. But before he finished his grade in Icelandic Literature, he had already published three books. And that’s surprising! How Andri became a writer is a short story: he began studying Medicine (most of his family are nurses or doctors), but he only lasted half a year. “I was writing too much and I didn’t pass the exams, so I quit.” And his parents… “Parents are always worried when they have a healthy child that can do maths and just wants to become a writer. But my first book was sold out, and things went well, so they were happy… and here I am!”

Now he is in Reykjavík, but in October he is going to Switzerland because of a book he wrote twenty years ago. “My books are always coming up somewhere, and usually later than expected. A book that I wrote fourteen years ago has won a prize in France this summer…” There’s not a day-to-day routine in his life (he changed our meeting four times - and he travels at least once a month) “I have my time divided between many things… I write books, plays, documentaries…” and he has four children, so he has to write between 8 AM and 4 PM. Now he is writing a book related to the melt of glaciers and human beings sense of time and place in history.

- What do you think about all this?

- Well, it’s a collage of different influences. I was invited to interview Dalai Lama and climate scientists. My grandparents were glacier explorers, and they were travelling over glaciers in Iceland before anybody was thinking of global warming, when the glacier was in the context of eternity, as if it was going to be there forever. And now they will only last ninety years. So it’s like going from geological spirit to human spirit. Nature changes affect human lives… it’s kind of a mix of all this.

- How was the interview with Dalai Lama?

- So interesting. It will be published soon.

Andri’s work is inspired by literature and nature. He hikes with his friends, and his family has a farm in the north of Iceland. “There you can sit on a rock and listen to 50 species of birds attacking you at the same time” he says laughing. So do you sit there anyway? “Well, they are angry birds and they can be really hungry… but this is something you have to see!” Another thing that he thought that had to be seen was the sky of Reykjavík with all the city lights turned off that he proposed for educational and ecological reasons. So thanks to him, the night of the 28th Sept. 2006 Reykjavík was completely in the dark for half an hour.

- Did you like it?

- Well… I was actually managing it, so I couldn’t be into it properly. I knew that everything that happened in the city during that half an hour would be my fault, and that’s a terrible responsibility. – Says laughing.

- So you didn’t look at the sky at all?

- Well, yes, it was a bit cloudy. But I was basically waiting for it to finish. Nothing happened, only good things. People fell in love… actually I know a couple that are still in love. So that’s enough. Can you ask for more?

His phone suddenly rings. He picks up, and when he hangs up, he smiles.

- My daughter wants to go to Justin Bieber’s concert.

- Kidding?

- No, not kidding! She’s going…

The powerstation is in Reykjavík’s outskirts, so getting to downtown is quite an adventure. “Hope you find your way back” he says. “If you get lost, just follow the birds!”