Wednesday, 27th May at 8 p.m. will the Austrian artist Ingrid Gaier to welcome guests and present their video work Stitches, which she has been working on in the Hafnarborg artists' residency. The event will also feature a musical performance of a work Bjargar Brynjarsdottir, flautist and composer.

In her work, Gaier explores how memories, women's biographies and life experiences are manifested in textiles, drawing, photography and moving images. Stitches She reflects on the story of an embroidered altar cloth connected to Þorbjörg Eyjólfsdóttir, an Icelandic woman who, according to legend, was taken captive during the Turkish raid of 1627 and later returned to Iceland. In her captivity, she had vowed to give the Holtskirk altarpiece if she regained her freedom, and upon her return, she fulfilled her vow. The altarpiece is now part of the collection of the Skógar Museum, where it is on display.

The event is held in connection with the artist's residency at the Hafnarborg guest studio and provides an insight into Gaier's research on the altarpiece, where she traces a little-known thread in this chapter of Icelandic history. In the work Stitches The artist explores the historical tradition of textiles, oral histories and the imagery of the altarpiece, using animation to draw attention to the significant history of the altarpiece, both personally and historically. In this way, larger questions are also opened up about material memory, textiles, and the stories that craftsmanship can carry.

Ingrid Gaier (b. 1967) lives and works in Vienna. Her practice includes drawing, textiles, animation, writing, archival research and more. She is the Head of the Textile Design Department at the Fashion Institute Vienna.

Free admission – all are welcome.