Pocket Universe

The National Gallery of Iceland presents Pocket Universe by Ásta Fanney, originally commissioned for the Icelandic Pavilion of the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Pocket Universe is an invitation to step onto a stage of possibilities where stories, symbols, and gestures are intertwined. Ásta Fanney suggests bridges between our familiar reality and other realms, where the threshold becomes the turning point and the pivot point at the centre of a clock where all time resides. A moment of reflection might usher forth a path, as a sky-blue hue embraces us while we are anchored at our primal core. 

In the Icelandic Pavilion, a dismantling of fixed rules allows for alternative logics drawn from a variety of ancient and contemporary games. Transcultural cosmologies are also borrowed and reassembled, forming a structured foundation from which new worlds and meanings can emerge. Ásta Fanney refocuses optimism as an ontological approach where the spirit mind is a gateway for deliberate joy and words are used to shift perspectives to new states of enlightened wonder. 

Creature Zero, a possible portal, a voyager on a quest, enters a field full of spheres and navigates with a subtle realignment using intuition as a compass. It searches for origins in caves and in rocks, tracing fragile threads that weave towards an emerging whole. It seeks the heart of the earth, then uses its tail to swing from the trees towards the clouds. Buoys guide the way across the open ocean, and as a route emerges, voices surface, recalling nature or something almost forgotten. "Pocket Universe" remains in a state of flux, of endless re-creation.