BROTHÆTT: RITUALS OF REPAIR
in collaboration with Dansverkstæðið
The project is built around a series of rituals that soothe feelings of lack and imperfection. By gathering together material and intangible fragments and shaping them into a new whole through connection, gentleness, and compassion, the work elevates the beauty within imperfection and carries a healing potential.
Guests are invited to bring broken ceramics, which are either repaired or incorporated into a large mosaic work. At the same time, stories are collected about broken objects, broken bones, broken identities, broken dreams, broken relationships, friendships, and marriages. Participants are also given the opportunity to confess mistakes, to forgive themselves and one another. Stories and confessions are recorded anonymously and will be transformed into a sound work or performed by a choir in staged rituals.
The project travels around the capital area, with its headquarters at Dansverkstæðið.
Author. Steinunn Knúts Önnudóttir
RITUAL I - THE HEALING
MARCH 2026 / DANSVERKSTÆÐIÐ
30TH MAY – 14TH JUNE / KLÚBBURINN REYKJAVÍK ARTFESTIVAL
Do you want to share what is broken?
Do you have broken ceramics?
Do you want to smash something that is of no longer of use to you?
Steinunn Knúts Önnudóttir, performance maker and artistic researcher invites guests to create a collective mosaic from broken ceramics. Alongside this process, she gathers anonymous stories of what has broken in people’s lives.
The healing is the first of three rituals in the project Brothætt, a participatory work that engages with fragility and imperfection in human existence and affirms the beauty within imperfection.
In Healing, the foundational gesture is to release what is broken, ruptured, or no longer functioning, allowing the fragments to acquire meaning within a new context, where they join the fragments of others and form a larger whole.
Broken ceramics and personal accounts constitute interconnected layers of the work, the material and the experiential . Stories of broken objects, broken bones, broke identities, broken dreams, and broken relationships become a sound work presented alongside a circular mosaic that refers to the cyclical nature of existence, impermanence, and transformation. Image and sound unfold together as an experience that bears witness to the power of connection and empathy.
Visitors are invited to:
– bring broken ceramics
– brake ceramics that is of no longer use to you
– participate in making the mosaic
– enter into conversation with the artist
– write an anonymous story
– record their story
Steinunn receives guests at Dance atelier in Hjarðarhagi 23 February – 28 March
Tuesdays, Wednesdays,Thursdays, 10:00–16:00.
Wednesday 18.March 19 -21.
No booking required.
Klúbburinn Listahátíð í Reykjavík – Iðnó.
Times: TBA
Small groups can be accommodated by arrangement: fallegt@fallegt.com
RITUAL II - THE REPAIR
MAY 2026 / DANSVERKSTÆÐIÐ
Individuals or pairs (friends, family members) are invited to an intimate performatvie encounter with the performance maker, where the focus is on repairing what has been broken. The encounter blends the mending of the tangible and the intangible. Conversations that take place during the repair remain confidential, but each meeting may generate an anonymous text to be used in Ritual III.
Bring a broken object you care about so that the fragments can be mended with gold, or bring a garment with a hole to be repaired with golden thread.
Bring an experience of an inner fracture you wish to mend with care and attention.
The session is 45 minutes long.
Saturdays and wednesdays May 9th – 30th 2026
Limited places – price per person kr.4900 including materials and a tea.
bookings fallegt@fallegt.com
RITUAL III - THE FORGIVNESS
NOVEMBER 2026 / TBA
The Forgiveness is a ritual in which we ask one another for forgiveness for mistakes we believe we have made. Confessions may range from minor oversights to more serious wrongdoings. The ritual is performed as an antiphonal exchange for a divided choir, where confessions and acts of forgiveness resound in alternation.
Share your confession on the project website, by visiting the headquarters at Dansverkstæðið or a Brothætt satellite location, or by booking a performative encounter with the performance maker.
Take part in performing the ritual by temporarily joining the choir of mistakes.
CO-CREATORS BROGAN DAVISON AND JÓHANNA VALA HÖSKULDSDÓTTIR
