Recently, I was invited to Iceland to participate in a ‘Symposium on Aesthetics’ in cooperation with the University of Iceland, the Iceland Academy of Arts, and the Living Art Museum. Over 30 people from a wide range of disciplines – artists, writers, curators, critics, philosophers, a psychoanalyst, scholars, and clergy – spoke at the symposium, which was perfectly timed to coincide with a rare polar solar eclipse. The conference was held at the Snorrastofa Cultural Centre for Medieval Studies (www.snorrastofa.is) in Reykholt, a small community an hour north of Reykjavik, and one of the earliest farms settled in the country.

An intriguing farm-mound at the site is comparable to another at Bessastadir, the home of the President of Iceland.