BORGARBÓKASAFNIÐ
Welcome to our interview series by J.J. Mancho: Chronicles from the Future! J.J. Mancho is a Reykjavik based artist who worked on documenting the Future Festival held in the Reykjavik City Library in March 2026. He conducted interviews with workshop hosts and project managers and is currently working on visuals too.
HOW TO FUTURE WITH FANNY SISSOKO AND MARTYNA KAROLINA DANIEL
Martyna Karolina Daniel and Fanny Sanne Sissoko are the hosts of Future Festival. For this edition, they decided to follow a simple but strong motive: How to Future? Martyna is the Project Manager of Equity and Community Engagement and Fanny is the Project Manager of Inclusion and Education in the Reykjavik City Library.
JJ: How would you describe the Future Festival in a few words?
Fanny: This year, it was a two-week festival at the Grófin downtown library. We invited people to practice the future they want to see, which hopefully means a more caring future. We hosted various workshops—some focused on growing plants, others on disconnecting from or being more mindful of technology, and some simply explored our relationship with the future.
Martyna: It is the highlight of an ongoing library program that culminates annually. We’ve had two editions so far, and they were very different from each other. It’s wonderful to learn alongside our partners and the participants who help shape the festival each year. What was so nice about this year’s edition was the focus on hands-on practice. We asked ourselves, “What do we need to learn, and what can we physically do?” Doing something with your hands is a great way to break the ice; it’s much easier to connect with strangers when you are actively creating something together rather than just sitting passively in an audience.
The first edition was in January 2025. It was a one-day festival that completely took over the downtown library. Events happened simultaneously on every floor for different audiences. It was a fast-paced, high-energy day meant to connect people who might not have met otherwise. That’s why it was so wonderful to experiment with a completely different approach this year. We embraced a slower pace, giving things time to evolve organically.
J: How did the idea to create a cultural gathering around the future originally come about?
M: For the first edition, the idea came from my colleague Dögg and me. We have different backgrounds—mine in visual arts and hers in philosophy—but we both realized we had been privileged to learn the practice of imagining and experimenting during our education. Since the library’s mission is to democratise access to tools and knowledge, we felt it should also make the practice of imagining accessible to the general public. We wanted to move away from heavy, dystopian narratives that freeze us into inaction. Then, this year, Fanny joined the project, and the concept evolved.
F: In the first year, participants imagined a future 100 years from now. This year, we really wanted to focus on action and what you can do with your hands right now. We don’t see time as a strict line; we see the future very much like something it’s happening right now, as we’re talking we’re making it. Every action brings a timeline to a different direction, that’s why we wanted to focus on practice, presence and hands!
M: That’s why this year was very sensory. We worked with soil, clay, paper, and textiles. A lot of just touching things. Memory is deeply tied to the senses, and we wanted people to create positive memories in the present that will help them live in the future they would like to live in. It was a powerful connection in all this tangled timeline, also talking about our past, singular memories, while we were also practising to live in a more caring future.
J: The making of this festival seems to be quite personal to you. How would you define your roles in relation to the festival?
F: We were the organizers and curators. Last year involved an open call and a selection committee, but this time we had to move quickly. So we designed a core framework and contacted specific hosts, but we also left space for people to propose and shape their own events. But in terms of our roles, we could enjoy the event, no need of keeping in the background. We planned it for the events to be repeated, having time for people to come and go. We were also participants, as much as hosts.
M: That was a huge difference from the first year, I don’t remember participating in any workshop. I very much rely on what Fanny said, we were able to curate and have a vision of what we wanted, but this vision, this framework was clear but flexible. For instance, people would contact us with ideas that fit perfectly, and we were able to seamlessly integrate them. That flexibility is also why the festival extends beyond its two-week timeframe. We’re building those relationships for a long time, and now we have a series of events that we call “After the Future”, and maybe closer to the next festival swinging and start to call them “Before the Future”, to create a sort of momentum for the next festival.
We also placed a strong emphasis on play. Sometimes people look at playful activities and don’t realize how much you’re actually learning. We don’t have to take ourselves too seriously to do very important work. Also you don’t need highly specific skills to participate, which makes the learning environment much more inclusive.
J: All these workshops help build a specific mindset—one that is community-oriented, playful, and more optimistic, which counters the standard dystopian view of the future. Was building this mindset an explicit goal from the start?
F: I think both of us, in our past projects, we have always prioritized participation, which means we believe people have the power to do things for themselves. The mindset we want to avoid is feeling passive and hopeless about the future. We believe in the individual power, even when it’s quite limited, still power. Maybe it’s something we don’t need to discuss explicitly since it is the basis of what we believe.
M: Also oppressive systems, such as the one we live in (I’m not talking about Iceland), thrive in people forgetting they’re powerful. That’s how it works, you make people feel small, hopeless, scared. And then you can do whatever you want with them. So how do you fight this? You don’t fight that with weapons, you’ll never win; you fight it with care, joy, connection, and believing you matter and your actions should be meaningful. However small your mark is, you still hold power.
As Fanny said before, we understood there is a huge power that comes with curation. Especially when you’re working for the public sector and you have to shape a cultural program that’s accessible for free to everybody around the city. We treated it very seriously, that’s why the only right way to do it, is making the projects co-designed and participative. We have a vision, but we don’t decide every single detail. We let people take the initiative and sometimes we don’t give our opinion, that’s a delivered act.
J: Is the seed library a permanent addition in Grófin?
M: Definitely. The seed library is here to stay, and we started the herb garden as well.
F: I was not sure how people would react to this workshop, but it turned out to be the most popular one. Considering the timing of the festival, in March, it is nice for people, especially immigrants craving for spring time, offering to get home some green that grows in a few weeks.
M: I met recently a few people who came to plant seeds, and told me their plants are growing well. Then I realised about people still watering their plants, as a daily reminder on their time planting in the library.
A journalist who interviewed us recently pointed out that there is no one more hopeful than a farmer putting a seed in the ground. Despite devastating news, planting requires care and a profound hope that things will work out.
J: What would you like to leave for future generations that we perhaps lack today, or that they will need more of?
F: I would want to ensure they have spaces where they can just “be.” I feel there are fewer and fewer spaces where people can just “be” without having to be productive, work, or perform a version of themselves. I want future generations to experience that kind of freedom—essentially, a 1990s childhood. [laughs]
M: I love Fanny’s answer and wish for the exact same thing. I would also add that, specifically in Iceland, I wish for more places to grow food. It is tough to live on an island with a difficult climate, but we have so much space. I would love to see community gardens in every neighborhood, like something normal. Even if you live in an apartment, you could have access to a shared garden where you can grow cucumber, potatoes, mint, or kale. It would make us more self-sustainable, build community, and strengthen our connection to nature.
More information:
Martyna Karolina Daniel
Project Manager of Equity and Community Engagement
martyna.karolina.daniel@reykjavik.is