SÚL_VAD is an ongoing collaborative project between visual artist Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir and composer Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir. Growing up together in a small town in Iceland, their friendship, passions, interests and ideas were shaped by the freedom of their natural surroundings as much as they were influenced by the limitations of their environment. The duo’s unique way of collaborating and creating work together, while living in different countries for the past 6 years, has led to multiple different projects. Their artistic collaboration began when they created the audiovisual performance Ymur, premiering at the European audio and art festival Tut Töt Tuð in the Netherlands in 2017. Since then, their work has been presented at various exhibitions and events in Sweden, Austria, Iceland and The Netherlands.

Their work is experimental and observational, using video and audio as a means to collect information and material as well as communicating ideas to each other – resulting in interesting installation works and performances where the two mediums blend together. It explores the relations and opposites between the visual and the auditory, the natural and the superficial. It focuses on the seen, the heard, the felt elements of the world around us and gives new perspectives and roles to borrowed natural elements. Taking inspiration from the visible and hidden world of Icelandic nature, the contrast between human nature and nature, the weather and stories from their grandparents, amongst other things, each work is an autonomous result of their collaborative research of various perspectives and topics important to the artists, including social issues, human behaviour, and the spiritual mind to name a few.