Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.07.2003, Blaðsíða 24

- the reykjavík grapevine -24 july 25th - august 7th, 2003
A R T
HIGH TIME
FOR GREENLAND
High time is the folk etymology
translation of what seems to be
Icelandic key word in summer
- hátíð. Hátíð means a festival,
festivities, holiday, and there
appears to be quite a choice of
those all over Iceland as soon as
the weather gets a bit friendlier.
The majority of these events are
children-oriented, but some offer
fun for fully grown humans, too.
The second weekend of July you
could have, for example, entered the
Most Flaming Red-Head contest at the
Irish days at Akranes, or, alternatively,
travelled up north to watch the traditional
Greenlandic drum dance or learn how to
skin and carve a seal. The latter took
place at Flateyri, a little village in the
West Fjords where a four-day festival
of Greenlandic culture was organized by
Kalak, a Greenland - Iceland friendship
association. The chairman of the
association, the Greenlander Benedikta
Thorsteinsson is, among others things,
a former member of the Greenland
government living in Iceland.
Flateyri was not chosen because of
its location, the organizers hoping the
guests might actually catch glimpses of
Greenland proper from the fjord shore,
but because of the special ties that have
been binding the two places for the past
seven years. In 1996 a disastrous snow
avalanche hit the village, damaging
29 houses and killing 20 people, and
Benedikta Thorsteinsson organized
fund raising in Greenland to help Flateyri
recover from the shock. The festival was
to be an opportunity for Greenlanders
to see the beautiful and sometimes
dangerous landscape and for Icelanders
to get acquainted with the culture of their
Atlantic neighbours.
Unfortunately, the malicious gods
of sea cargo played yet another of
their cheeky tricks and the container,
carrying genuine Inuit tents, clothes
and other equipment, ended up making
a grand tour of European ports instead
of sitting nicely in front of Vagninn,
Flateyri´s number one pub and the
ultimate meeting point. It did not seem
to have done any major damage to the
festival, and the lack of seal skin tents
was made up for by the atmosphere. For
four days Flateyri became a little melting
pot, where Greenlandic, Icelandic and
Faeroese elements were mixing with
the local Polish population, spiced up by
three Americans who are at the moment
kayaking around Iceland and stopped by
to take part in the kayak competition.
Communication was as smooth as ever
and whatever feelings may be against
the mainland oppressor, the fact of the
matter is that the official language of
the festival beside Icelandic was Danish,
even to such an extent that when one of
the music bands addressed the audience
in English, there were protesting voices.
The look of the village occasionally
proved more than my poor confused
mind could cope with, and whenever the
concentration of Greenlandic flags and
people running to and fro in seal skin
clothes reached a critical level, I had to
give my brain a silent ‚Flateyri, Iceland
chant.
The four days offered a variety of
events in both kind and provenience,
proving there is more to Greenlandic
culture than shamans’ humming. The
east coast supplied a world-famous
traditional drum dancer as well as a
rock band on one hand and a choir
on the other. The choir among others
sang at the Sunday mass, read by the
former prime minister of the Greenland
government and attended by an
incredible number of people, given the
wild partying of the night before. From
the south of Greenland came a choir
that presented traditional Greenlandic
group dance, while a music group from
Nuuk played traditional Greenlandic as
well as African drums plus whatever
else they could get their
hands on and soon had
the reserved Europeans
stamping their feet and
clapping their hands. The
frontman of the group
is also a graphic artist
with international artistic
training background and
an exhibition of his works
showed Greenlandic art
is not necessarily bone
carvings over and over.
The Icelandic
part of the festival was
a powerful argument
against the belief that
culture in places smaller
than Reykjavik is non existent. The
village had obviously produced at least
two competent song-writers, who have
both come to the festival to contribute
to the fun. Furthermore, the local doctor
not only played the role of a tireless
presenter, but turned out to be the
director of a prize-winning film and a
singer and musician. Two VIP’s native
to the area came to give speeches, the
minister of agriculture had the audience
roaring with laughter at some dirty
jokes as well as jokes on local politics
(ed. note: who’d have thought he had
a sense of humour? Apparently, this is
never shown to us city dwellers), while
a member of the parliament held a
lecture on a hobby horse of his, Iceland
- Greenland historical relationships. The
visual arts Icelandic counterparts were
landscape paintings by a fisherman from
Ísafjörður by trade, who first started
dabbing in painting in his leisure time on
boat.
Flateyri has, of course, as any
other decent Icelandic settlement with
population in the plurals, a swimming
pool, where you could learn
Eskimo turns and which the
Greenlandic guests took
by storm, as pools and
swimming are a rare pastime
in Greenland and, surprisingly,
many Greenlanders actually
cannot swim at all. During an
afternoon kayak presentation
at the harbour, the kayak
instructor showed what our
poor attempts should really
look like, performing Eskimo
turns while holding the paddle
in ways that simply seemed
to contradict human anatomy, or even
holding a lit cigarette that did not go
off. That it was not just another lame
show for dumb tourists was proved by
the oohs and aahs the onlooking fellow
kayakers uttered.
Having been given mental nutrition,
festival guests were not to go
physically hungry either. The fact that
the monstrous barbecue devices were
set up next to a tub with a cute baby
seal got me quite worried, but soon
a motorboat arrived with a somewhat
bigger seal caught in the sea. The seal
was dragged to land, and immediately
skinned, carved and dissected by the
skilled hands of Greenlandic women. The
baby seal was left in peace for children
to pet; still I think we were quite lucky
Madame Bardot was elsewhere.
We were also lucky the rainy weather
changed its mind in the end, and last
night’s bonfire and open-air concert took
place without any emergency relocating.
By that time locals, participants and
guests had mixed into a homogenous
mass, and when the presenter
introduced the last song of the night,
a piece written by a local songwriter
and sort of Flateyri’s national anthem,
as “a song everybody knows and can
therefore sing along, if there is anybody
who does not know it, will they please
leave the premises immediately”, even
strangers such as me were able to join
in the refrain at least.
Greenlandic nights was a festival
of bright summer nights, when the sun
would only symbolically pop down below
the horizon so that there was plenty of
time and light for entertainment. There
were organized events for sure, but what
charmed me most was how people who
until then had known little about each
other, enjoyed time together. Now and
again, I get surprised at the enthusiasm
and energy that Icelanders put into
organizing fun for themselves. The
roads to the West Fjords were teeming
with cars that were transporting whole
families to places of obscure names and
population counts in the tens, because
some family holiday or another was
held there. So next time you drive in the
country, watch out for flags flapping in
the summer breeze, the unmistakable
sign of such an event - you may end up
experiencing a genuine Icelandic hátíð
first-hand.
Beata Rödlingova
Miki Jacobsen, untitled, etching 2003. Miki is the frontman of Appap papii, a seven-man
music group from Nuuk that specializes in all kinds of drums
Warning: there actually were some seals harmed in making
of this picture
Traditional Greenlandic drum dance
LISTINGS
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Gallery i8, -11 to 18 -Works of the contemporary
artists Roni Horn
Handverk og Hönnun, -13 to 17 -Exhibition of
contemporary and traditional Icelandic art and
crafts.
Sigurjón Ólafsson Sculpture Museum, -14 to 17
-Portraits and Abstractions
Viðey Island, -Starts 19:30 -Walk around Island
Viðey, with a look at the art of Richard Serra.
Night
Dubliners, Troubadour Ingi Valur
Wednesday, August 6
Both Day and Night
Austurvöllur out door exhibition, Earth from
Above. Aerial Photographs by Yann Arthus-
Bertrand.
Day
Reðursafnið, Phallological Museum, A fine
penis and penis related selection from various
mammals.
Árbæjarsafn, Folk Museum, An exhibition shows
life and work in the years 1950-60.
National Gallery of Iceland, Exhibition of
selected works by Icelandic artists from the
National Gallery's collection.
National and University Library, Exhibition of the
founder of the city´s documentation, also, childrens
literature, texts and drawings.
Culture House, Images of Iceland - milestones in
cartography
Norræna húsið, Nordic House, The Big Nordic
Elephant Show
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, The Five
Elements. Photographs and etchings from French-
Vietnamese artist Claire Xuan.
Ásmundarsafn, Sculpture museum, The
Modern Man, works of popular sculptor Ásmundar
Sveinsson.
Einar Jónsson Sculpture Museum, The works of
Iceland´s first modern sculptor.
Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík Art Museum, -10 to
17 -Lobster or Fame Two Decades of Bad Taste
Ltd. Also Erró´s War paintings and Insight into
international contemporary art in Iceland. Admission
500 ISK. Free on Mondays.
Kjarvalsstaðir Art Museum, -10 to 17 -New times
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Gallery i8, -11 to 18 -Works of the contemporary
artists Roni Horn
Handverk og Hönnun, -13 to 17 -Exhibition of
contemporary and traditional Icelandic art and
crafts.
Sigurjón Ólafsson Sculpture Museum, -14 to 17
-Portraits and Abstractions
Safn, -14 to 18 -Collection includes both
international and Icelandic contemporary art.
Night
Dubliners, BT and family: Various musicians play
together as a band in a random apperance
Sirkus, Jazz DJ
Gaukur á Stöng, The band Ókind
Thursday, August 7
Both Day and Night
Austurvöllur out door exhibition, Earth from
Above. Aerial Photographs by Yann Arthus-
Bertrand.
Day
Reðursafnið, Phallological Museum, A fine
penis and penis related selection from various
mammals.
Árbæjarsafn, Folk Museum, An exhibition shows
life and work in the years 1950-60.
National Gallery of Iceland, Exhibition of
selected works by Icelandic artists from the
National Gallery's collection.
National and University Library, Exhibition of the
founder of the city´s documentation, also, childrens
literature, texts and drawings.
Culture House, Images of Iceland - milestones in
cartography
Norræna húsið, Nordic House, The Big Nordic
Elephant Show
Reykjavik Museum of Photography, The Five
Elements. Photographs and etchings from French-
Vietnamese artist Claire Xuan.
Ásmundarsafn, Sculpture museum, The
Modern Man, works of popular sculptor Ásmundar
Sveinsson.
Einar Jónsson Sculpture Museum, The works of
Iceland´s first modern sculptor.
Hafnarhúsið, Reykjavík Art Museum, -10 to
17 -Lobster or Fame Two Decades of Bad Taste
Ltd. Also Erró´s War paintings and Insight into
international contemporary art in Iceland. Admission
500 ISK. Free on Mondays.
Kjarvalsstaðir Art Museum, -10 to 17 -New times
in Icelandic Photography. Admission 500 krónur
Saga Museum, -10 to 18 -History face to face,
historical figures and major events in Icelandic
history presented in a unique way. Admission 800
krónur.
Gallery i8, -11 to 18 -Works of the contemporary
artists Roni Horn
Handverk og Hönnun, -13 to 17 -Exhibition of
contemporary and traditional Icelandic art and
crafts.
Sigurjón Ólafsson Sculpture Museum, -14 to 17
-Portraits and Abstractions
Safn, -14 to 18 -Collection includes both
international and Icelandic contemporary art.
Night
Dubliners, BT and family: Various musicians play
together as a band in a random apperance
Kráin 73, Live music
Grand Rokk, -Starts 22:00 -The bands Moody
Company, Tenderfoot, Fritz. Admission 500 krónur
The Five Elements
Travel Journals by
Claire Xuan,
Reykjavík museum of
photography
May 24th - Sept. 1st
This exhibition is based on the travel
journals of the French-Vietnamese
artist Claire Xuan and features a col-
lection of artistic photography and
reproductions of original etchings.
The photographs are processed as
lithographs and on paper made from
natural materials. Between the sheets
are thin sheets of paper (papyrus),
printed with special features and writ-
ten characters of different countries.
The unification of the five fundamen-
tal elements in Asia is the source of
Claire´s inspiration for the concept of
her travel journals, which span the past
six years of her career in five different
countries; Vietnam, Paris (France),
Morocco, Madagascar and Iceland.
On her travels around the globe, Claire
seeks out different aspects of the five
natural elements; wood, fire, earth,
metal and water and photographs
them.
Although Claire Xuan’s photographs
clearly comprise the majority of her
work, they should not be considered
alone as the most significant work of
the exhibition; the presentation display
box in itself is equally important.
The concepts of binomial and diptych
were primarily considered when select-
ing the works for this exhibition. Seen
from that perspective, the photographs
illustrate surprising common features,
which may be observed in the same
elements in different conditions and in
different places in the world.
Admisson free.
West of the Sun, North
of the Moon,
Nordic House
Until August 31st
The Nordic House duly throws in
its share to this summer’s Atlantic
spirit and sets up an exhibition of
48 photographs from Greenland,
the Faeroe Islands and Iceland in its
foyer. The exhibition is organized
into sets of 3 photographs, one
from each land, bringing to light the
parallels and differences between
the three lands. The photographs
were taken by Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson
during his extensive travels in the
region. His fellow traveller Ari Trausti
Guðmundsson, a geologist and writer,
provided the text.
Open Mon-Sat 8-17, Sun 12-17,
Admission free