Roni Horn: Vatnasafn/Library of Water

The distinctive geography, climate and culture of Iceland has engaged Roni Horn for over 30 years. Her intimate relationship with the island has led to a multidisciplinary series of works, including books, drawings, sculpture, texts and photographs. Located in a converted library building on a promontory overlooking the ocean in Stykkishólmur on Iceland’s west coast, Vatnasafn/Library ofWater incorporates Horn’s abiding interest in water and weather, reflection and illumination, and the relation of these phenomena to the fluidity of human identity. The installation houses 24 glass columns containing local glacier water that reflect outside weather conditions onto a rubber floor embedded with weather-related adjectives. It also functions as a community space, a writers’ studio and an oral archive of local weather reports. An introduction by co-director of the Londonbased nonprofit Artangel, James Lingwood, surveys Horn’s substantial body of Iceland-related work alongside essays by critics Briony Fer and Adrian Searle, a selection of weather reports and writings by Horn, inspired by her experience of the enigmatic island.