Hugarflug annual conference on artistic research
11. - 12. September 2025
Iceland University of the Arts
In 1949, the German philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric”. Now, almost 80 years later, we stand at a similar crossroads. What purpose has poetry in the midst of a genocide, while war and famine rage across Europe and the Middle East? When concepts such as humanity, democracy and truth teeter on the edge? In this lecture, poet, critic and IUA academic coordinator, Þorvaldur S. Helgason, will discuss the role and responsibility of poetry in the age of extremes we now live. Through post-war Polish poetry, mid-century Icelandic poetry, and contemporary Palestinian poetry we will trace a thread from the past to the present and examine how writers as different as Czesław Miłosz, Sigurður Pálsson and Mahmoud Darwish write about beauty in a tragic world. The lecture takes its title from Adam Zagajewski’s iconic poem “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” and turns his demand on its head, asking the reader to examine their own stance towards the issue.
Þorvaldur S. Helgason
Writer and poet
Þorvaldur S. Helgason (b. 1991) is a writer and poet from Reykjavik, Iceland. Þorvaldur has published three books of poetry: Draumar á þvottasnúru/Dreams on a clothesline (Partus, 2016), Gangverk/Clockwork (Mál og menning, 2019), which received a Grassroots Grant from the Icelandic Literature Center, and manndómur/manhood (Mál og menning, 2022). Þorvaldur is an academic coordinator at the Iceland University of the Arts in the Fine Arts and Performing Arts departments.