-The episode of "Culture Quest" you're about to watch is brought to you by... ♪ [ Helicopter chuffing ] [ Engine revving ] [ Water sloshing ] -What ideas will you bring to life?

-Up until just a few decades ago, to much of the world Iceland was a hidden cold volcanic land somewhere near the Arctic Circle.

Often known only by that old schoolroom mnemonic -- Greenland is ice, and Iceland is green, and that was about it.

But beginning in the late 1990s, a series of fortunate and unfortunate events began to change all that.

The 2008 financial crash suddenly made Iceland affordable for adventure travelers.

Film and television productions were drawn to this ready made blockbuster landscape, and by the 2010s, Iceland had found itself at the top of the adventure tourism world.

-There we go.

-Whoo-hoo!

-Becoming the darling of Instagram and Facebook influencers, posting their, and I'm using air quotes here, "Discovery of this place."

Yet long before the hashtags and bucket lists, Iceland already had a thriving creative core, a homegrown catalyst for artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers.

That spirit is deeply rooted in the national mind-set and woven into everyday life here.

And through all this new global attention, the people who live here have simply continued doing what they've always done, living lives filled with art, culture, innovation, and adventure, shaped by the extraordinary landscape all around them.

And it's because of those people and their long standing and ever evolving culture that we're here in Iceland.

We're starting out at the Reykjavik Arts Festival, which was in full swing while we were there.

The festival goes on for 16 days in June, and it's a biennial event.

The festival started in 1970.

It was actually started by the government to open up the island of the world, to be able to host high level projects from abroad, but also to exhibit what Iceland has to offer.

And they started out big time.

-It really, from the very first day, it was really high level.

So for example, the first edition we had Led Zeppelin.

-What?

I love it!

-Yes.

At the height of their, like, at the cusp of their like -- -Yeah.

-Yeah.

-I get that, though.

There's some of Led Zeppelin's lyrics that kind of allude to... -Yeah, yeah, they wrote one of their lyrics here, I know.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Still that's pretty cool.

-Yeah.

That's cool.

-That's -- Yeah.

[ Laughter ] -So and that was like the bar was there from the beginning.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-And if you look through the list of people and artists who performed and collectors that have been present at the festival, it's phenomenal.

-Really?

-Yes.

I think a little bit in the beginning, it was like the foreign superstars and then the Icelandic.

-And then a couple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like that.

-It was a little bit like that, but that's changed.

-And while the talent level is exceptional and definitely the main draw for people, what this team is really drawn to is the takeovers.

It's in these moments where communities of all types get a chance to do their own thing.

And it all stems from the core values of the festival itself.

-The mantra is always that the arts are a right and not a privilege.

So access to arts and representation in arts and participation in arts is a right and not a privilege.

And I get so convinced at these takeovers how much it matters.

What happens is that when we have the Filipino takeover, the Filipino community in Reykjavik shows up, and they feel welcome at that stage.

When we have the deaf takeover, where we have like a sign language takeover... -Yeah.

-...the deaf community shows up, and they would not feel maybe as comfortable showing up for other things, but that's when they show up.

-Yeah.

-And they feel seen and catered for.

-And it's often people and groups that are like, both either marginalized or just haven't really, like, gotten their kind of place in the sun in Icelandic culture.

And it's beautiful to see.

-To see what comes out of their collective brains or individual minds, how they want to represent themselves has got to be a magical moment.

Especially, I mean, you're all creative people, to see, it's impossible not to have a preconceived notion of of what they're going to do and then to see something show up like, oh, my God, I never thought of that, but that is so cool.

-Yeah.

-For context, as well, we are quite recently a multi cultural community here.

We are now about 20% of first or second generation immigrants, and that's compared to our neighboring countries and European countries, that's a really high proportion.

And what makes it special, as well, is that it's happened really fast.

It's just like in the middle of the 20th century, we suddenly became, you know, we were extremely poor, and we suddenly became prosperous, like just after the Second World War.

-Right.

Yeah.

-And the society changed like, like, really quickly.

And also we got rid of the Danes.

-Got rid of the Danes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

-So we, um -- So Yeah.

So we're seeing a another -- It's like a quick change again.

-They see the festival as having an important grassroots role in helping to smooth the way between new immigrant communities and native Icelanders.

-I think my favorite parts have been like kind of the folk dancing, because that seems to come up again and again, and it just really brings people together.

-We have a circle dance, where we invited different communities and teachers to come and teach.

And we had 60 people here dancing from 8:00 to 10:30.

I had to stop them.

-You shut it down.

-I shut it down.

-In that one event, they learned Palestinian dances, Balkan dances, Icelandic folk dances, Filipino dances, and an Iranian family that had become regulars to the festival jumped into this moment and taught Iranian dances.

-It was just beautiful, and we were so happy.

It was this kind of moment where things just happen.

You haven't planned them, but there are some -- -Spontaneous sort of -- -Community who meet and both feel they have agency.

-This is such a very, very general question, but what's going on in Iceland in the art world?

Why is it so robust?

-Yeah.

-Because not everywhere is like this, right?

It just simply isn't.

-I don't think it's one simple thing.

-Right.

-I think we are small.

There are only 400,000 people living on this island.

-Yeah.

-Which means that we sort of -- um, you get more opportunity.

-There is quite a positive attitude in general.

So while in France, I would come with an idea, and people would be, "Ah, yeah," thinking about how it's going to be difficult to find a space and find money.

-Yeah.

-And here in Iceland, it was like, "Okay, great."

My cousin is also a dancer."

-Yes.

-Literally anyone is kind of no more than, like, two degrees of separation away from you.

If you don't know them, you know someone who knows them.

-Always.

-And that way, like, it is kind of easy enough for anyone with an idea to, like, get in touch with the National Theatre or with like a space.

-We sometimes feel jealous of artists living in bigger communities where they can specialize really deeply, and there is not much space for that here.

You sort of have to be doing different kinds of stuff.

But that also makes people grow as artists.

I think like there are pros and cons to that ,as well.

-I see a lot of pros in it because there's, and again, as you know, there's a lot of talk about and always has been in art where famous artists suddenly get into this thing where they just repeat, repeat, repeat because it makes them money and keeps them getting recognition.

But this makes you continue to innovate.

-Maybe this is actually one of the reasons.

It is literally that.

-Yeah.

-But I think we couldn't really like repeat shows until tourism really picked up.

-Exactly.

Yeah.

-So that's really interesting.

-But when it comes to culture, we are I think sometimes also exotified in the sense that, you know, people see us all as artists that are that type of sort of a little bit quaint and interesting.

-Yeah.

-But of course, we have an array of culture here, a diversity of culture and all sorts of artists working.

And I really want people to, when they come here or when they think about Iceland, that they see it as more diverse and rich really, than this sort of superficial image.

-Right.

Yeah.

-Of elves in waterfalls or whatever.

-Elves and waterfalls.

Yeah.

-I don't know.

That's perfect.

-While we're on our way to our next location, I'd like to say something to all of my Icelandic friends.

I tried really hard to pronounce all the names and places correctly, but as you're about to hear, I didn't always hit the mark, but I still wanted to try.

It's a beautiful sounding language when spoken correctly, just not by me.

Anyway, on with the show.

We're at an arts and culture center on the edge of town that's home to an incredible exhibition there, an exhibition that's also a little mind bending, but in a really, really good way.

The Art Center Hofudstodin is the permanent home to Chromo Sapiens, an installation that represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 2019.

It later appeared at the National Gallery of Iceland, where it drew one of the highest attendance records ever.

The work is the brainchild of internationally renowned artist Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, known as Shoplifter or just Shopee.

She's built a global reputation over two decades, creating large scale installations with synthetic hair.

Her partner in this project, Lilja Baldurs, had long been a consultant for artists and creatives, which is how the two met.

And while they were searching for a space for their next venue, they came across this site an old relocated World War II bomb shelter.

And that's when the dream began to take shape.

She was like, "Why don't we just, you know, buy it and open up our own museum for this artwork?"

-Yeah.

-And the back story for that is that this was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2019.

-Yep.

And to rave reviews.

-To rave reviews.

It was insane.

-Yeah.

-The Venice Biennale draws artists from over 80 countries, and being selected to represent Iceland was a landmark moment for Chromo Sapiens.

Not long after the Biennale, Shoplifter set her sights on creating a permanent home for the installation.

-She approached me with the idea, and I kind of, you know, I'm the person who makes things work or say, "This doesn't work."

-Yeah.

-So I was like, "This actually could work."

So we approached it with the mind-set of finding investors.

-But for whatever reason, they weren't able to find that one or two major investor.

So to help put them over the top, she decided to put some skin in the game.

-And so I was like, "Okay, let me just become the investor."

I actually sold a house or an apartment that I have here, and I'm invested in this.

So we are two like 50/50 co-owners.

-So you went all in?

-I went all in, yeah.

Because I believe in it that much.

-Yeah, right.

-Just the experience of seeing what the artwork does to people.

-Yeah.

-This is what Shoplifter's art is all about.

She talks about, you know, how the colors make you happy and how they penetrate your retina and just, you know, produce dopamine.

-The exhibition relies on several senses, and one of those is sound.

And Shopee had someone very specific in mind for that element.

-She approached the Icelandic metal band HAM, who she grew up fan girling about.

-Really?

-Yes.

-So Shopee approached the band and soon discovered the band was about to break up, but she managed to get them on board the project anyway.

-And they created three different soundscapes.

So it's three caves.

-Yeah.

-So it's three different soundscapes for each cave.

And then it was such a success that they didn't quit in the end.

-She kept the band together!

-She kept the band together!

-She kept the band together!

How great is that?

-I know.

It's so cool.

And the music really opens it up.

It gives it space, it gives it time, and it completely changes the work in an amazing way.

-But no question, the main element here is the material Shopee works in -- hair.

On smaller scale projects, Shopee does work with natural hair, but on large scale pieces like this, it's all synthetic.

-Shopee talks about the fact that everyone is creative with their own hair.

-Yeah.

-Um... When it's on your body, you style it every day.

You're your own creator.

But as soon as the hair is off the body in the shower drain or whatever, it becomes grotesque.

-In the shower, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

-So when you walk into her work, she wants you to kind of question yourself.

Is this magnificent, or is it grotesque?

And there are some people who find it to be too much, but I think the majority of people love it.

-Yeah.

-Like really love it.

-And to Shopee, it's all about the viewer and how they react and interact to her installation.

-The name Chromo Sapiens, she is actually naming the viewer, not the artwork.

So you walk in the artwork as homo sapiens and you exit as Chromo Sapiens.

-Yeah.

-It's very accessible.

You don't need to know anything about art to walk in there and to have a feeling about it, you know?

-Yeah, a lot of art can have that feeling of being sort of it's smarter than you, you're not able -- You're not able to understand this.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

-She doesn't subscribe to that at all.

-Yeah.

And while Shoplifter is the brilliant mind behind the work itself, what stands out to me is the leap of faith Lilja took to commit to someone else's artistic vision.

It definitely speaks to the overall vibe we're starting to feel here in Iceland, that it's a place filled with people willing to take a chance on the unknown.

I mean, come on, she sold her house.

-You sold your house, for God's sake.

-I sold my house!

-Come on.

-I know.

I really believe in this.

I want to see this thrive.

And I believe we have brought something so important to Icelandic art, like the art landscape in Iceland, so... -I agree.

-Yeah.

-A big part of what Lilja goes after to make this place work are things like hosting school groups, art workshops, weddings, private events, work gatherings, tour groups, and more.

And it all revolves around people's experiences going through the installation.

And they have heard and embrace all kinds of interpretations of the work itself.

For me, it felt like a Lorax truffula tree fever dream, like stepping back into the psychedelic swirl of the 1960s.

The Star Wars nerd in me had an ice cave on the planet Hoth reference.

But for some people, this space can also provoke real world emotional and physical reactions, too.

-And you know, we have, um, we have kids with, um, Asperger's or with ADHD that come through here.

And the parents say, "We can't take this kid anywhere, but he wants to come here for three hours."

-Yeah, you had a bunch of stories about kids reactions, special needs kids coming through.

-Yeah.

-Blind people coming through.

-We have people here in Iceland who maybe visited 15, 20 times.

-Oh, wow.

-They come so often to get -- It's like color therapy.

You forget everything in your life when you walk in here.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a place to come and forget everything and just be in the now, in the moment.

Like experiencing all kinds of feelings.

-Yeah.

-And just be with yourself.

Like, how do you react to this?

Look at your -- look at the landscape in here and look at your own inner landscape.

-Yeah, yeah.

I love it.

-This is Steinunn Thorarinsdottir.

She grew up in Iceland, and her studies brought her to England and Italy and then back to Iceland, where she started to work professionally.

For nearly four decades, she's been creating works that have found homes in museums, public spaces, and private collections all around the world.

The lion's share of her work is in sculpture, and no question she is one of Iceland's top living artists.

We met with her in her workshop.

She found her artistic focus quite early on during her studies.

-Well, I did my foundation and tried all kinds of different things.

And then when I got into three dimensions and sculpture, it just felt like coming home.

My main method is this sand casting method, because my work is very organic and the texture is kind of not very, very detailed and fine.

-The cliff's notes to sand casting are you take a casting of your model, then pour plaster into the cast, then take the plaster out of the mold and use it to make an impression into compressed sand.

Then you pour the molten metal into the sand impression, and you get your sculpture.

It's the step between the plaster cast and the sand impression where Steinunn will add or subtract from the plaster to add character to the sculpture itself.

-The character of my figures are also very Icelandic, so I like them to be primal figure in a way.

-One of our major traveling exhibitions, called Borders, began as an installation on the plaza outside the United Nations in New York.

-The idea was to have figures, pairs of figures in two different materials and same form.

-One was made out of cast iron, which would eventually take on a rusted patina, and the other out of aluminum.

-And they formed like a border along the plaza.

So it was very connected to the idea of the U.N.

-She's getting at the idea of our perceived differences, whether physical, cultural, or geographical, and that, despite those perceived differences, we're ultimately bound together by a shared human form.

The exhibition ran in around a dozen cities all across the United States.

-You know, the idea of the Border has become more and more compelling in the world, and it's been traveling a lot.

So depending on each venue, it changes the meaning a little bit.

It went, for example, to the southern states, and then it becomes another border.

-Yeah.

It means a completely different thing.

-Yeah.

-That's the amazing thing about art though, right?

It's, uh -- location matters.

-Yes.

-Not just the creator, the creator's meaning, but it's in many ways even more so the viewer's meaning.

-Exactly.

And sometimes you could even say with a public art piece is that it's not complete until the viewer comes in.

-It's got to be such a fascinating thing as the creator.

-Yeah.

-Because obviously you have your own emotion into it and your own meaning behind it.

And then do you get to hear the viewers?

Do they ever take recordings or hear discussions of what the viewer, how the viewer perceives?

-Yes.

I mean, I have a lot of discussions, you know, when I meet people, and they have such a different vision often.

You know, depending on their life experiences, of course.

You know, we're all so different.

So I think that's so interesting also, is that the interpretation changes from one person to another because my work is rather it's androgynous figures.

They're not male or female.

They're open to interpretation, and they're not very expressive.

They're kind of inward.

And I think that's good in the sense that people feel that they can approach them and that they can relate to them, you know, themselves.

-I would think that would be so fascinating for you, to be able to put something out there into the world that leaves here with your own meaning in it, but yet it goes out in the world and creates all these.

I mean, it's eternally creating new meaning through the viewer.

-Exactly.

-Another one of her major shows was called Armors.

-The Armors show came when I was -- I stayed in New York for an extended time, and I was visiting the Metropolitan Museum a lot.

-It was during her time in New York for her Borders exhibition that she would wander the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was the Armor galleries there that inspired a new idea.

She asked the Met to create 3-D scans of three suits of armor so she could turn them into castings, and they agreed.

-And then I placed these kind of in a way typical of my work is these naked, genderless human figures.

Placed them against the armor.

So there was this dialogue between also the powerless and the empowered that just proved to be a really rewarding show.

-That exhibition showed in New York, in Copenhagen, and in Reykjavik during the 2022 art festival here.

And she has no plans of slowing down, from a new book that recently came out to working in new forms and mediums, even watercolors now.

-But, uh, I love it.

I can never retire, you know?

-Yeah.

Not from something you love.

-♪ Marks on my window and moves through the opening ♪ ♪ ♪ I sense danger ♪ Ásgeir was born and raised in a tiny village of around 45 people in the northwest of Iceland.

But his breakout album in 2014 called "In the Silence", made him an international name in the indie music world, including playing all across Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

This international fame all started from his classical music background and '90s grunge.

I stayed in school until I was 19, so I finished.

Yeah, I was for 12 years.

-Playing classical guitar?

-Yes.

Yeah.

But I started writing my own music when I was like 10 or something.

So I was always -- my main focus was always that kind of.

But I went through school for my mom and my dad.

And for myself, as well.

-Yeah, -I knew it was a really good kind of base to have for guitar playing just in general.

And, uh, so I knew it was good for me, but it can be very frustrating.

-It was medicine.

Yeah.

But I'm thankful for it now, obviously.

-Absolutely.

-I was playing classical guitar, but I was just listening to, like, rock music, like grunge.

Nirvana was my favorite band when I was very young.

-Yep.

-And, um, so I was just writing songs in that kind of style.

I started listening to folk, country.

-Oh, yeah.

-Whatever.

You know, picked up a steel string acoustic guitar and started writing songs, very different songs, and just on my own, just in my bedroom.

And that's sort of when I started to develop and find my own kind of style and my own voice.

-Your own voice.

-Yeah.

-Because you grew up in kind of a small town, right?

-Yeah, it's in the northwest side.

-Yeah.

-It's like a two hour drive from Reykjavik.

But then I moved to Reykjavik when I was 16.

I went to school here.

-It was during that time that he eventually came up with a group of songs that he was happy with and brought them to the producer at this studio, and they started working together.

-Like one or two months after that, we had 10 songs.

Oh, wow.

And so yeah, that was my debut album back in 2012.

-So is that the one that "King and Cross" is on?

-Yeah.

-And all that.

-That was your debut album?

-Yeah, yeah.

-That's a hell of a debut album.

-♪ When the king takes sides ♪ ♪ Leaving moral minds, soldiers take their share ♪ ♪ Night hawks seem to sense that now is the time ♪ -The original version of that album was in Icelandic, and became one of the best selling Icelandic language albums ever.

Around 1 in 10 Icelanders owned a copy.

Then he produced an English version.

-That not only did hugely here, but it got out around the world as far as... -Yeah, it did great, uh, and far exceeded my expectations, obviously, because I had none.

Yeah, I hadn't really been playing that much live or anything like that.

I mostly was just staying in my bedroom and writing songs.

And I came here, and we recorded this album, and it did great.

And so we had to start playing live.

I've always been kind of introverted and quite shy.

-Yeah.

And suddenly you're on stage.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-In front of hundreds of people.

-And now I've done like 700 shows all around, all around the world, yeah.

But I never really -- I never saw this happening, you know, where I was -- I would be the front man singing my own songs.

-He's put out four albums so far, and his fifth, which includes the early release of this single "Ferris Wheel", is set for early 2026.

-♪ Take my hand at the crack of dawn ♪ ♪ Don't know about you, honey ♪ ♪ But I'm ready to run into the great unknown ♪ ♪ There's no time like now, don't worry about money ♪ ♪ We will figure it out, I'm sure ♪ -One of the main people I worked with is my father, who's a poet.

-Oh, that's convenience.

-Yeah.

-That's great.

I love it.

-And so when I was very young, like 13, 14, he was always writing poetry, and there was like pages lying around the house.

And I used to just take them and make music to them.

-Oh, my God.

-Yeah.

Because my main focus was always music more than words.

You know?

He had the opposite thing.

So we just -- it was a perfect fit.

So it's been my father.

And then this friend I told you about that played in my band.

-Yeah.

-He has written a lot of lyrics, as well.

-Okay.

-And their lyrical themes have just always been very nature related.

-Yeah.

-And that's definitely just become a part of my music.

Yeah, but it's difficult to say what it is with nature.

How does nature in Iceland and Iceland affect your music?

-Yeah.

-You know, I don't really know, but it's just a part of me and people that have lived here.

-Well, I mean, how do you explain what's baked into your DNA?

-Yeah.

-It just -- it just is.

-It just exists.

-That brings us to Harpa, the magnificent concert hall right on the waterfront in downtown Reykjavik.

And a moment that went way beyond what I was expecting.

You've played here before, right?

-I've played here a few times.

-But not with your back to the audience, right?

-No, no, no, never with the back to the audience.

-It's such a -- I mean, the building itself, it's an iconic building here, right?

-Yes, it definitely is.

Um, it's right downtown.

And, uh, it's beautiful from the outside, and the inside.

-This is a magnificent hall.

-This is the home of Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.

-What do you want to play?

-So, yeah, I wanted to play one, uh, unreleased song.

Something we've been working on, uh, for the past few months.

Uh, the song is called "Dreyma Barn", which means, uh, a dreaming child.

The lyric is written by my father.

-I love it.

-And, uh, it's about this man walking home at night.

And he's just in awe of his surroundings, and, uh, he's just describing that, and he feels like a child again through being, uh, in such an awe of everything.

-Awe inspiring place that Iceland is, right?

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

All right.

That couldn't be a more perfect song.

So I'll get out of your way.

-Yeah.

Love it.

♪ ♪ -[ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] ♪ ♪ [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] ♪ ♪ [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] [ Singing in Icelandic ] ♪ ♪ -Today we're making our way from Reykjavik to the south coast of Iceland.

It's there that we'll catch a ferry to a small group of islands called the Westman Islands to meet with one of Iceland's top chefs, Gísli Matt, at his restaurant, Slippurinn, a place that redefines what locally sourced means.

So those are the Westman Islands.

There's an Icelandic name for them, but I don't want to butcher it.

We'll let Gísli Matt pronounce it correctly for us.

But we're going to his restaurant, Slippurinn, and it's open just in the summertime, I think four nights a week, and they pack them in there just for this limited time.

But it's one of Iceland's top, top restaurants, and he's definitely one of their top three or four chefs, so... Slippurinn opened in 2012 on the island of Heimaey, the largest of the Westman Islands.

Chef Gísli Matt and his sister Gudrun Solveig Audundottir opened it as business partners, along with help from their mom and dad, turning an old shipyard building into one of Iceland's top and most innovative restaurants.

Nice to meet you in person, You doing all right?

-So good.

How are you?

-I'm good.

We're here.

You know, we're up for doing whatever you think.

I mean, see how the whole magic comes together, right?

-Yeah, definitely.

I think we should take a little trip around the island.

I can show you, and we can stop in various places, take some produce with us.

-Yeah.

-So do a little forage.

-Okay.

-And then from 4:00 to 5:00, I'm gonna be setting up the kitchen with them.

-Yeah.

-And then the restaurant opens at 5:00.

-We'll try not to take too much of your time, but this is awesome.

I'm absolutely thrilled.

Seriously.

Our first stop was at a little bay on the south side of the island where we, well, started eating seaweed.

And while it's not by any means my first time eating seaweed, the distinct tastes of each type was admittedly unexpected, but not at all in a bad way.

And our little seaweed shore lunch was a great window into what's going on in the culinary mind of Chef Gísli Matt.

-A really similar texture and flavor as like gherkins.

-Oh, yeah, the little pickles.

-Yeah, the little pickles.

Caper berry.

Obviously not a caper berry, but this is called bladderwrack seaweed.

-So it's fascinating to me that the last two that I had kind of looked the same until you, of course, look at them closely.

But they have completely different flavors.

-Yeah, completely different flavors and textures.

-Yeah.

-And this these here are the sea truffles.

-The truffles.

-Now, if you dry them, they cost as much as truffles.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-And it's just -- you just picked it up.

-Yeah.

It's just -- -Just hanging right there.

-All the way here.

-Exactly.

Yeah.

-Basically we learned a lot with also trial and error.

-Yeah.

-But that's the fun of it.

And that's what gives you really energy when you figure something out that nobody that I know of has ever used before.

-On the way to our next stop, we drove through the lava field from the 1973 Eldfell eruption, when a sudden two kilometer fissure split open the island, forcing residents to evacuate in a matter of hours as lava advanced towards the town and harbor.

I mean, all these lava fields that we drove through, it's like this sort of birthplace of an island, right?

-Yeah.

And I mean, 50 years ago, this was not here.

Like, this is all new land.

-The land you see in these drone shots was created by that five month eruption, which expanded the island by nearly 20%.

It's on these lava fields that Gísli is looking for something special, the oyster leaf.

-So this little leaf, it's crazy because it has, like, this briny flavor.

It reminds of oysters.

-A little over a decade ago, Gísli had a two day internship at 11 Madison Park in New York, one of the top restaurants in the world.

-And back then, they were importing these leaves fresh from Alaska, and I was told that they were paying $1 per leaf.

-Per leaf?

-I just stood in the kitchen and just like, "I've seen this somewhere before."

And then I realized it grows wild, both here in the lava fields and on the beaches on the island.

It was crazy to me because, I mean, we're running a family restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Iceland.

-Yeah.

-And I was standing in the best restaurant in the world, and they were telling me how special this thing was.

-Right.

Yeah.

Sometimes you have to go away to realize what you have back home, right?

-Definitely.

-Yeah.

-To be honest, even though I've published a cookbook, I don't really like recipes.

-Oh, yeah?

-You know, it's more about learning about the ingredients, understanding it, and building something from that.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-Because you can have a recipe written.

But if the herb is less flavorful than usually or more punchy, then the recipe doesn't make any sense.

-Right.

-You know?

-So you maybe view the recipe more as suggestions?

-Yeah.

Exactly, exactly.

-Yeah.

I like that a lot.

-We are definitely inspired by traditional methods, but our goal is to like elevate those methods and respect them and use some of it, but also be very open to get inspired by other cultures, other techniques and things like that, so we can make something that is maybe truly unique.

And it needs to be both interesting and comforting and delicious.

You know?

It's like those three things that need to be because we could be getting foodies that even travel to Iceland to come here and do it.

-Right.

-But we could also get a hungry person that just comes in to eat.

-Just wants to eat, yeah.

-Wants to eat, and then it needs to be comforting and of course, delicious.

-Yeah.

-On that note, it was time to get back to the restaurant for evening dinner service.

-Okay, gentlemen, we are moving.

-So after a little chef starter of the beach tart he talked about earlier today... -Hey, there are the, uh... -Oyster leaves.

-Yeah.

...and a cup of mushroom and sugar kelp broth, I was happily on my way to having one of the most amazing dining experiences of my life.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, there's going to be a lot of that.

It's not very original, but there's going to be a lot of that look during this meal.

-All right.

Then we continue.

-First up, our puffed cod skin crackers and smoked cod roe, Arctic thyme-cured halibut with fermented radishes and onions on crackers made from spent beer grain from the local brewery.

-And then here you have the guillemot eggs.

They come here from the outer islands.

So there are climbers that go and pick them up.

-Oh, wow.

Like the islands we were looking off that way to go up those cliffs?

-Yes, exactly.

So they need to just strap themselves down to get them.

-Wow.

The textures are great and the flavors carry through so well.

The next course was scallops grilled over birch wood with smoked seaweed and grilled guillemot with smoked dulse seaweed, all in a beet glaze.

It's so nice and clean and fresh and imaginative, but not overly fussy and complicated.

They're all elements that have either been eaten here for centuries or just growing on the island until someone here decided, "Oh, we should pick this and try and put it into the food."

That's what makes this place such an innovative place.

It's also why there are so many people coming to this remote island just to experience this restaurant.

And now it's on to the main courses.

The fish is lemon sole with seaweed capers, radishes, and apple all wrapped in parchment.

-And then you have the lamb with stolen rhubarb.

-Oh, yeah.

What does stolen rhubarb mean?

Do you mean it literally or?

-Yeah, yeah.

So we get to steal rhubarb from people's gardens here on the island.

-Oh, nice.

-We just put out an ad.

"Can we steal your rhubarb?"

-Yeah.

-And we give them certificates for cocktails instead.

-Oh, that's hilarious.

Big shocker, pretty spectacular.

I think the vision of a lot of people is if you're eating seaweed, you're just taking a giant clump of seaweed and shoving it in your -- in your mouth.

It's used as this subtle addition to the whole meal.

Like any other, you know, basil, thyme, oregano, any of those things.

That's how it's used.

Super tasty.

And I'm getting full, no question.

Wow.

-All right.

The desserts for you here.

-For dessert, there's a pine and sorrel tart with pine foam.

-And here you have a dessert made from skyr and cod.

-And cod?

-And cod, yes.

So in the bottom you have like a skyr and white chocolate mousse... -Uh-huh.

-...rhubarb, and then you have crackers made from the cod bones.

-That's the one.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

-So and then the cod ice cream as well.

So, to bind this ice cream, we used [Speaks indistinctly] -The eyeballs.

-Yes, exactly.

-See, I've been listening.

-That's good.

-They use the gel from cod eyeballs to bind their homemade ice cream together.

-Really hope you enjoy it.

-No question.

Perfect.

But here comes the cod dessert.

Oh, wow.

That's awesome.

From the fish bones, the cracker.

Kind of sweet and savory.

A little salt and sugar.

That's out of this world.

That's just amazing.

Mm.

Wow.

-I promise this is the last thing.

-Yes.

-So this is a kelp caramel.

This is just the last bite.

It was amazing having you here.

-Look, man, I was blown away.

-I mean, we always want to welcome people here and show them what we think luxury is, and that's -- -I love that.

-Yeah.

Like, we don't think it lies in, like, expensive ingredients that we import.

-Yeah.

-The true luxury is about exploring things where you maybe cannot get anywhere else.

-Yeah.

Well, you spoiled me.

You spoiled us.

You really did.

-Thank you so much.

-I appreciate it, man.

All the best.

You got a full house you're still cooking for.

But -- -Yeah, yeah.

It's good.

-Thanks for taking your time.

-Thank you so much.

-Awesome.

Since our visit, Gísli and his team have only continued to grow.

And now they have really big news.

After 14 years, Slippurinn served its final meal to make way for a much larger year-round restaurant called Ylja at the Laugarás Lagoon, building on everything they created at Slippurinn and expanding it further.

We're back in Reykjavik this evening, but not for long.

And that's because of what these two have in store for us tomorrow.

This is Benjamin Hardman and Siggi Bjarni.

Benjamin is a highly sought-after adventure photographer and cinematographer.

Originally from Australia, he moved to Iceland in 2013 to chase a life of exploration in a place that was made for someone with his talent.

He's worked with the BBC, National Geographic, Netflix, and more, and his imagery from Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, Antarctica, and the North Pole has made him one of the top people you will find anywhere in the world in his field, and it's all because of shots like these.

♪ Siggi is a professional mountaineer, guide, and adventure consultant, born and raised in southern Iceland.

He's spent well over a decade leading mountaineering expeditions, guided experiences, and rescue operations across the Icelandic Highlands.

He spent much of his life literally on the edge, summiting Everest, Denali, Mont Blanc, and countless other peaks across the planet, as well as driving, skiing, biking, or climbing anything that has a decent vertical pitch to it.

Together they run the travel and expedition company called Storm Expeditions, leading groups into some of the most incredible landscapes the world has to offer.

Tonight we're meeting to talk about what they have in mind for us for a big back of beyond adventure trip tomorrow.

So tomorrow.

Epic trip.

-But it all might get turned on its head when we see the top of the glacier.

When we get close... -Yeah?

-...there may be a draw to go up that.

-All right.

Hey, look, we're in your hands, man.

Absolutely.

Cheers.

I'm psyched.

-Cheers to that.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

The plan is to head south to see if we can head up a track to a spectacular overlook on the summit of the famous volcano Eyjafjallajoekull, which erupted in 2010, blanketing southeast Iceland in ash and shutting down most of Europe's air traffic for a week.

If it's possible to make it all the way up, the views overlooking the caldera and the glacier should be incredible.

-We should be able to get up to the glacier, and we also need the snow to cover the crevasses to get onto the summit.

So we have a chance today and with this kind of day, we can't really not try it.

-Yeah, no, this is ridiculous.

The first step is to attach these tire pressure tubes so we can lower and raise the pressure depending on the terrain we're going over from the comfort of inside the truck.

Which brings up an important point.

This is not something you do on your own in your rental car.

There are real risks and potential to do real damage to the environment.

You need to be in a serious vehicle like this one, and you should be going up with a legitimate expedition company like Siggi and Ben's, who have decades of experience between them and an obvious love for the environment they're exploring.

They weren't sure if we were going to be able to get up here to get further up, all the way up to the glacier, but it looks like it's going to happen.

So it's a pretty epic trip coming up here in that thing.

And just like that, we're in a wide open snow field with the summit and glacier inside it somewhere off in the distance.

And for you geologists and glaciologists watching, technically it's an ice cap with many glaciers that spread out from it.

But for now, we're sticking with the word glacier.

So we just made it to the rim of the caldera.

This is the volcano that shut down all air traffic in 2010.

Down that side, there's actually a huge crevasse.

So you have to be careful.

You don't want to go that way.

But Siggi and I are going to climb up this little thing just to have a little extra special view.

So the thing is, we're waiting or hoping for the clouds to just magically open up.

-I think it would be an amazing opportunity.

We're up here.

-Yeah.

-I do feel like waiting.

-Absolutely.

It's just like fishing.

-Yeah.

-You know?

Yeah.

-Drone fishing.

-Drone fishing.

There's hope.

There's hope in this.

Yeah.

Look at that.

-All right, let's go see what this is about.

-Oh, this is awesome.

I'm willing to admit that standing on a ridge in the middle of a cloud with no idea what's below me was a little surreal, but Siggi has quite the climbing pedigree and grew up only a few miles away from here, so I felt like I was in pretty secure hands.

Now it was just about playing a waiting game with the clouds.

And then magically, it all opened up.

There we go.

Yeah!

-Whoo-hoo!

-Now it was time for Ben and Siggi to do what they do.

♪ This is such a classic shot for our duo.

Siggi acting as the human scale to the boundless geology surrounding us, and Ben doing what he does so well, capturing the whole experience in high definition.

Even with the wispy clouds passing by, the shot was stunning.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Whew.

Yes.

What a great moment.

You could see everything.

Just this giant 360, all the caldera with the crevasses.

Then you can see for miles and miles that way.

Ocean's that way.

Actually, the Westman Islands, where we were with Gísli, are right there.

Wow.

Just beautiful.

And now it was time to head back down.

♪ -Adventure is a part of a journey of the soul.

The combination of the weather, the volcanoes, the nature, like everything that you have to deal with... -Yeah.

-...the combination of that makes it quite challenging place, or it can be a very challenging place to travel in.

So if you listen -- like, we really like when we travel together to stay flexible.

That's like the key to a good experience.

And let the weather and the conditions direct us instead of certain location and getting places.

-Gettin locked in.

-Exactly.

And you also open your mind for those new experiences.

-Yeah.

-And then when you find yourself in a moment like we had before, it just hits you and it hits you hard.

I really, truly believe that experiences, when they're strong, they can be life changing.

And Iceland is just built for that.

-The people we've certainly met here are super spontaneous and flexible and open to ideas.

I mean, is that sort of the sense you get?

-100%.

-Yeah.

-There's a sense of freedom here, and it's empowering to do what you love.

And I think that's why there are so many people just seeking out to do what they love.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-It drew me here all the way from the other side of the world.

From a photographic perspective, for me, there's no place like this because it encompasses every single artistic landscape that I love.

-Yes.

-It's not just the glaciers.

It's not just the volcanoes or the green, you know, mossy hills.

It's everything together.

And on top of that, pancake down with the craziest weather.

-Yeah, yeah.

-That combination, not knowing what's coming... -Yeah.

-...and seeking it out.

Seeking out those special moments like this.

We waited it out and we got the reward.

You put yourself into very exposed situations where you have no one but yourself and your group... -Yeah.

-...to make decisions.

I really feel like being so deep in nature is where I truly learn who I am.

-I love that.

Yeah.

You guys seem to do the real deal in a world that can get kind of fake.

-You know, we go out with the intention to create something.

We just let nature do the talking.

-Yeah.

-And as Siggi says, float with the goat.

-Float with the goat?

-Yeah, that's what -- It was supposed to be go with the flow, but misunderstood it.

-Float with the goat?

Yeah.

All right.

And I know you know, there's a dramatic difference between staging what we did up there -- -Yeah.

-I mean, you're photographers.

You, of course, stage a shot.

A painter, you know, stages what they're going to paint.

That's part of the part of the art, part of the creation.

But that's very wildly different from being at, like, that waterfall down with the kiosk of nice pastries and things and acting like you just discovered this waterfall.

-I think the buffer is that we had to take some serious decision making to get to that location, to do what we did.

-Yes.

Exactly.

-You know, there's no just being chauffeured to the place, get the photo, and leave again.

We're working really hard.

And often, like, you know, maybe the shot just looks epic and you don't even think about how it happened.

But, like, we've gone through, like, a grueling 15-hour storm experience to get to that.

-Yeah.

-And I think that's -- It's so much more than just taking the photos.

-It's that combination of confidence in what you're doing and a little bit of hope, a little bit of luck.

And I would also imagine the ability to say, "All right, that didn't work.

We'll try it next time."

-There's nothing wrong with that.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-This is our next time.

We tried this a couple weeks ago.

-We're your next time?

Ah, all right.

That's fine.

Well, in this case, I'm happy to be the next time.

That's okay, because it was awesome.

Yeah.

This was just spectacular.

It really was.

-Yeah.

Thanks for coming with us.

-Thanks for taking me.

-Without you, we wouldn't have stayed up there.

And that was a fantastic experience.

-That was -- That was outstanding.

-I live for these kind of days.

-Yeah.

All right.

Awesome.

Let's get back in that beast of a truck.

-Let's do it.

-When I'm putting together these episodes, I typically start with just a general sense of direction.

But I like to let the people and the place itself take it from there.

Iceland was no exception to that rule.

And it's of course not possible to arrive without some preconceived notions of what will unfold.

I knew there would be incredible nature, remarkable artists, and a deep cultural thread running through it all.

But what I didn't expect was the willingness of the people here to take risks, to chase their dream.

A country filled with people who genuinely live by the credo that anything is possible.

And in a land that is constantly re-creating itself on a volcanic scale, it's no surprise that the people who call it home approach life with that very same creative force.

♪ ♪ -Log on to culturequest.tv for more information about this and other episodes, and for links to follow us on social media.

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