Nína Hjálmarsdóttir
Nína Hjálmarsdóttir
performance artist & director
ninahjalmars@gmail.com / @ninahjalmars
mobile. +1 (917) 330 7631
Nína Hjálmarsdóttir is an Icelandic performance artist, writer & producer based in New York. She is one of the founding members of the performance art collective Sálufélagar, who has produced four performances for stage. She holds a B.A. in Performing Arts from Iceland University of the Arts and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, as well as having studied one year of M.A. in Creative Writing. She has lived and worked in South-America, Denmark, and Germany.
In her art she uses devised methods, as well as the staging of the self, working with humor on the boundaries of reality and fiction, driving the audience to take a stance and dream of new possibilities. She writes and creates spaces about performances of image and identity, often focusing on the Nordic image and Nordic whiteness. Recently she has been occupied with the notion of empathy in art, and the ethical dilemma of the privileged empathizing with ‘the other’. She is inspired by authors that work autotheoretically, mixing theory with the personal. Sálufélagar‘s most recent performance, Independent Party People, staged the Icelandic image and how one is excluded from that image. She has produced for different festivals and groups, produced workshops on national identity, created a personal podcast for the National Radio on love and relationships, and worked as a performance art critic for a major newspaper.
CURRICULUM VITAE
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Education
2019 - 2020 Master's Degree in Performance Studies from New York University - Tisch School of the Arts.
2018 - 2019 Master's Degree in Creative Writing at the University of Iceland. Unfinished.
2013-2016 B.A. Performing Arts. Iceland Academy of the Arts.
2010-2011 Exchange Student in Cordoba, Argentina
2008-2010 Electronical composing at Kópavogur Music School
2000-2012 Piano at Kópavogur Music School
Performance with Sálufélagar
INDEPENDENT PARTY PEOPLE 2.0 - September 2019 - In collaboration with Sálufélagar - funded by the Icelandic Performance Art Fund.
INDEPENDENT PARTY PEOPLE 1.0 - Collaborated with Selma Reynisdóttir and Soulmates- funded by the city of Reykjavík - premiered August 2018 in Mengi, Reykjavík.
SUITABLE - Collaborators: Selma Reynisdóttir, Sigurður Andrean Sigurgeirsson & Birkir Sveinbjörnsson - premiered at NEU/NOW FESTIVAL September 2016 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
SÁLUFÉLAGAR - Collaborators: Adolf Smári Unnarsson, Fannar Arnarsson, Selma Reynisdóttir/Eydís Rose Vilmundardóttir, Sigurður Andrean Sigurgeirsson og Þórey Birgisdóttir - premiered May 2016 in Smiðjan, Reykjavík.
Employment
2015 - current: Performance artist for and co-founder of Sálufélagar performance art collective.
2018 - 2019: ÁSTIN, RÚV National Radio, Radio Show Producer for Rúv Núll Podcasts, Two seasons.
2018 - 2019: Performance Art Critic for Morgunblaðið newspaper, one of Iceland's biggest newspapers.
2009- current: Freelance Writer for different publications
December 2018: Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform, Assistant for Springback Magazine.
August - November 2018: Producer for Everybody's Spectacular Reykjavík International Performance Art Festival.
March 2018: Producer for HÁSKAR multi-disciplinary arts festival, Iðnó, Reykjavík, www.haskar.org.
2018 - 2019: Production assistant Source Material Performance Art Collective, MONUMENT at Lunga Art Festival Iceland & HERE ArtsCenter New York.
November 2017: Producer for Dance For Me performance art collective, THE BROGAN DAVISON SHOW for Everybody's Spectacular Performance Art Festival.
May - October 2017: Project Manager for Cycle Music and Art Festival. Created and managed the 'We and Us' Workshop on national identity and art funded by the Nordic Culture Point + other project managing for the festival.
April 2017 - June 2018: Research and on-line documentation, the life of Ásgerður Jónsdóttir, feminist and activist.
February 2017: Intern as a director's assistant with Þorleifur Örn Arnarsson at Staatsoper Hannover, in the production of HAMLET.
September - November 2016: Director's assistant for Ragnheiður Skúladóttir, Reykjavík City Theatre, in the production of EXTRAVAGANZA.
Everybody's Spectacular, Lókal International Theatre Festival, Reykjavík Dance Festival. Assistant before and during festival years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
August - September 2016: Marketing Director for Dance For Me performance art collective in the production of STRIPP, Tjarnarbíó, and Everybody's Spectacular Performance Art Festival.
February - June 2015: Intern for Hotel Pro Forma in dramaturgy, Copenhagen, www.hotelproforma.dk
- Assistant Director of The Apartment by Julian Maynard Smith, Nikolaj Kunsthal, April 2015
- Kirsten Dehlholm's Director's Assistant for Troika by Rachmaninov - La Monnaie, Brussels, June 2015
June - August 2015: Director's assistant for performance art group Wunderland in the production of Phoenix for Metropolis Performance Art Festival, Copenhagen, www.wunderland.dk
July - August 2012: Melting Potes - A Month residency in Vaunieres, France during the creation of Melting Potes Art Festival.
Skapandi Sumarstörf - Three summers working as a young artist for Kópavogur Municipality - 2009, 2010 and 2016
Grants & Selections
June 2020: Recipient of Performance Studies Internationalisms Award from the department of Performance Studies at NYU Tisch, for those who contribute to performance studies beyond the local context of New York.
March 2020: Selected for EMERGENYC program of Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics, New york.
January 2019: Sálufélagar collective: Production grant and five-month artistic salary from Icelandic Performing Arts Fund for creation of full-scale production of Independent Party People.
January 2018: Production grant from the City of Reykjavík for work-in-progress edition of Independent Party People.
May 2017: Nordic Culture Point Art and Culture Programme Grand for workshop 'We and Us', Cycle Music and Art Festival 2017.
May 2016: Selection of production 'Suitable', Neu/Now festival September 2016.
Selected Publications
Letters from Reykjavík final project for MA Performance Studies - PS Online Symposium 10.06.2020
Stundin Newspaper Published 23.2.19
Að eigna sér baráttu annarra - Hatari í Eurovision
Coverage of the Venice Biennale for Morgunblaðið, May 2019.
SEEN Zine – a publication of young artists writing, poems and other works Published 11.7.18
Um væntingar og hugaróra
Sirkustjaldið Webmagazine about art and culture Published 5.1.15
Warehouse9 kynulsi og list í Kaupmannahöfn
Skemman A repository of academic and research documents www.skemman.is Published 6.23.16 Can we be them? Bachelor research on the performance FUGIT by Kamchátka
Reykvelin – webmagazine on performing arts Published 11.29.17
Hlustunarparty á Everybody ́s spectacular
Performance art ritic for newspaper Morgunblaðið 2018-2019
Poppópera í tómarúmi 4.17.18
Óljós heimur valda og karla 5.2.18
Að elska jörðina og eyðileggja hana 06.12.18
Mannakindur, mollið og blokkarpartí 06.13.18
Ímyndunaraflinu boðið í dans 09.20.18
Um tilgangi, kraft og ofbeldi 11.22.18
Danssýningar árssins 12.28.18
Konur sem taka pláss 29.01.19
Að syngja um ekki neitt 13.02.19
Hátíð ólíkra örverka 01.03.19
Blótað með listum 12.04.19