Iceland established itself as an economic miracle in the first decade of the new millennium. With interest rates above 10%, depositing your money in the small volcanic nation seemed like a surefire route to wealth and happiness. Some thought it was too good to be true – and it was. In 2008, Iceland crashed spectacularly and became one of the biggest victims of the global financial crisis.
Instead of accepting the IMF’s prescription of drastic cuts, Icelanders went to the streets and deposed their government in the ‘pots and pans revolution.’ Bankers were jailed and people came together to find their own way out of the crisis. Iceland’s creative community benefitted enormously. It became affordable to pay rent again, find collaborators and get projects off the ground.
Huck’s Insider’s Guide to Reykjavík profiles the leading figures behind Iceland’s creative resurgence, including artist Sara Riel, cartoonist, playwright and stand-up Hugleikur Dagsson, Eygló Margrét Lárusdóttir, owner of progressive fashion boutique Kiosk, and Hilmar Grétarsson, publisher of Iceland Grapevine.
Tourists have flocked to enjoy this cultural renaissance and helped to support homegrown artists and businesses, but many locals now feel they’ve become victims of their own success. There are fears the tourist boom and explosion of hotel building is destroying the character of Reykjavík’s artsy 101 district.
Icelanders may worry about being inside another bubble, but while the rest of Europe struggling to lift itself out of recession, Reykjavík is buzzing with culture, creativity and life.
Read the full story on Reykjavík’s creative community in Huck 49 – The Survival Issue.
Subscribe to Huck’s YouTube channel to make sure you never miss another short film.
Latest on Huck
Exploring the impact of colonialism on Australia’s Indigenous communities
New exhibition, ‘Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography’ interrogates the use of photography as a tool of objectification and subjugation.
Written by: Miss Rosen
My sister disappeared when we were children. Years later, I retraced her footsteps
After a car crash that saw Magnum photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa hospitalised, his sister ran away from their home in South Africa. His new photobook, I Carry Her Photo With Me, documents his journey in search of her.
Written by: Lindokuhle Sobekwa
Inside New York City’s hedonistic 2000s skateboarding scene
New photobook, ‘Epicly Later’d’ is a lucid survey of the early naughties New York skate scene and its party culture.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Did we create a generation of prudes?
Has the crushing of ‘teen’ entertainment and our failure to represent the full breadth of adolescent experience produced generation Zzz? Emma Garland investigates.
Written by: Emma Garland
How to shoot the world’s most gruelling race
Photographer R. Perry Flowers documented the 2023 edition of the Winter Death Race and talked through the experience in Huck 81.
Written by: Josh Jones
An epic portrait of 20th Century America
‘Al Satterwhite: A Retrospective’ brings together scenes from this storied chapter of American life, when long form reportage was the hallmark of legacy media.
Written by: Miss Rosen