Pétur Arason, a veteran collector and curator, is closing the doors of his small exhibition space in downtown Reykjavík. A few years ago, funding from the city allowed him to convert his house into a museum that has been the venue for some of the most exciting exhibitions of contemporary art seen in Iceland, in addition to showing pieces form Pétur's own large collection. The funding has not been renewed. Christian Schoen and Jón Proppé visited Pétur to discuss the issue.

In the middle of Laugavegur, downtown Reykjavík's main shopping street, stands a tall wooden house, fairly typical for the street, which has for the past several years been one of the main hubs of contemporary art in Iceland. Surrounded by fashion shops, jewellers, restaurants and cafés, this one houses the collection of Pétur Arason and his wife, the artist Ragna Róbertsdóttir. Instead of the Armani and Gucci on view in the neighbouring shops, here you would more likely encounter works by Donald Judd, Richard Long or Pipelotti Rist, or any of the major contemporary Icelandic artists from Sigurður Guðmundsson, Kristján Guðmundsson and Hreinn Friðfinnsson to the youngest generation. Icelandic artists working abroad are also well represented and the collection includes several works by Ólafur Elíasson, to name but one.

The house has been in Pétur's family for a long time and he himself ran a sucessful buisness on the first floor for decades, selling clothing and jeans. But Pétur was also very interested in art and was a close friend to many artists and in the 1980 he started to have exhibitions on the second floor. The space was only open for a few hours per week or by appointment but it nonetheless became an important meeting point for Iceandic and international art. The artists who came to exhibit were many of the stars of the internatiional art scene, drawn by the chance of visiting Iceland and being part of something different. Pétur's own collection also grew rapitdly as he bought from the artists.

P.A. My father was a tailor and he had an interest in art so it came very naturally for me. He would take me along when he went to buy paintings and I learned my way around Icelandic artists. When I grew older, I travelled a lot and I was often in Amsterdam. The museums there were an education, especially De Staedlike Museum where they have a large collection of modern art and I went there whenever I was in town and had time. They had a lot of Malevich, a lot of Mondrian ... you could start at the beginning of the twentieth century and see it all. I started to know a lot of Dutch artists but Amsterdam was also a very international place so I met a lot of others, from the United States and Britain for example. This was in the early 1960s and my friend from Iceland started coming to Amsterdam, including Sigurður Guðmundsson, his brother Kristján and Hreinn Friðfinnsson. I showed them around the city and many of them stayed. I was buying art as a could afford to and gradually the collection grew.

Pétur was becoming an important collectory of Icelandic contemporary art before the public institutions in Iceland had even cosidered buying works from these emerging artists, many of whom soon became so well known abroad. Pétur also curated exhibitions abroad with his friends and was a generous host to the artists who came to visit him in Iceland, many, such as Donald Judd, returning year after year.

Five years ago, in an effort to revitalise the downtown area, the city made a contract with Pétur Arason to pay for certain changes to the house on Laugavegur and then to pay an annual sum to help him make his collection available to the public and continue to exhibit new work by Icelandic and international artists as he had been doing at his own expense for years. Using three floors, the resulting exhibition space, named Safn, has been an important part of the Reykjavík scene, presenting a progressive and international programme of exhibitions.

Safn has also showed how large, diverse and important Pétur's own collection is. There is hardly any international contemporary art to be found in Iceland's public museums but the list of artists represented in Pétur and Ragna's collection reads like a Who's Who of the most exciting artists of the last forty years. In addition to those already mentioned, there are works by Miriam Bäckström, Bernd og Hilla Becher, Daniel Buren, On Kawara, Ilya Kabakov, Sara Lucas, Lawrence Weiner and many others. having acess to this collection and Pétur's extensive contacts has been of vital importance for new generations of Icelandic artists and for anyone interested in contemporary art. Loosing the exhibition space is a major blow to the art scene here though the collection will remain intact and Pétur has vowed to keep it in Iceland. Somehow, though, there has been something special about having such an important collection displayed in the cramped, old-fashioned building on Laugavegur. It is a collection pulled together by a true passion for art and by Pétur and Ragna's desire to document the art scene of which they are such a vital part. Most of the works are consequently small and manageable and a visit to Safn is a bit like a voyage of discovery as you may suddenly stuble on works in the corners or on the stairwell.

C.S. When selecting works to buy, do you take into consideration the location here on Laugavegur?

P.A. When I started to have exhibtions here on the second floor it was often the case that artists would come here and exhibit and then I would buy from them so in a way it had to do with the exhibtition and the location. But my collection is mostly based on personal acquaintance. I know the artists personally and that's the motivation. The size of the house has determined the size of the works. I have a few large pieces but mostly smaller ones. But that is also one of the advantages. when you come here you are much closer to the art than you would be in a museum. That is one of the things people like about coming here. A lot of the people who come here are not very knowledgable about contemporary art but here they can see it displayed in small rooms and many have said to me that they were surprised to see it. They had always thought of contemporary art as something for museums or galleries but here they saw that you could easily display it in your own home.

J.P. Has there been no interest from the city to renew the contract to help keep Safn open?

P.A. The contract runs out at the end of the year and though I sent a letter to the city at the beginning of the year I have had no reply. I have bought a house to store the collection but it is clear that the exhibition space will be shut down.

C.S. Is there a plan to show your entire collection?

P.A. There is no plan at the moment to show the entire collection somewhere. There are always museums here and abroad who borrow pieces - up to 40 or 60 pieces at a time - so the collection is shown widely. Right now there are 40 peices on whow in Manchester. But there are approximately 740 pieces in the collection so it's a lot to show all at once.