Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2008, Blaðsíða 16

16 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 08—2008
fEATURE By Sveinn Birkir BjÖrnSSon — photoS By gaS
June 17, 1944, the greatest minds in Iceland convened on the banks
of Lake Þingvallavatn to declare independence. From this day
on, this nation should be a sovereign state, free from the tyranny
of its Danish masters. June 13, 2008, mere days before the nation
celebrated 64 years of independence, two great minds met on the
banks of Lake Þingvallavatn to discuss their own declaration of
independence and how to free this nation from the tyranny of its
aluminium masters.
ThE GRAPEVINE: First, tell me a little about how this is all con-
nected: the concert, Andri’s book release and his upcoming film
release. Is there more? How did this come together?
BjöRk: It was really just a coincidence. But with this, like so much
else that has to do with this issue, people are very upset. I’ve never
been a part of anything like this before, and I never really thought
I would. But there is just so much at stake here. After I played the
Hætta! concert, [a festival against the destruction of Icelandic na-
ture in January 2006] I decided to pull back a bit. My experience is
that it I should not be doing a hundred things at the same time, but
rather just focus on doing three things and take them all the way.
Also, I thought I would just do more good that way. But now, there
was little slump, so I decided to just raise as much hell as possible.
There were still people around who hadn’t given up entirely, and I
started talking to them, and that’s when I met Andri. His book was
just about to be released in English translation, and the movie was
just about to be ready, it just seemed that a lot of people were think-
ing along the same lines all of a sudden.
ANDRI: Some people think that many different organisations
mean disunion. But all these people are heading in the same direc-
tion. You could compare this with kiosk owners in Iceland. There
is no disunion among kiosk owners, even if they are not in one
organisation. This movement is spread out, mainly because there
is no money involved; people are just working on their own terms.
People often work better like that, focusing on single projects and
finishing them. Sometimes people burn out completely and need
to take a break, but they usually come back. Much like Björk, I have
never been a part of a political organisation. I recently spoke to an
American woman, a poet, who has been very active in protesting
the war in Iraq, and she said: “I so look forward to when Obama
becomes president, because then I can start writing poetry again.”
When things like this happen, ordinary people are forced to take a
certain responsibility, to adopt a cause, even if you are not neces-
sarily used to it.
BjöRk: All these people in Iceland who care about nature, they
have different opinions amongst themselves. To me, this is very
much like how Bad Taste [the label established by The Sugarcubes
in the 80s] operates. Everyone can bring in an idea and put it in
action, and the others will support it, nobody is asked “how do you
like this album?” If a member of Bad Taste wants to do it, the oth-
ers will help. There is nothing democratic about it. This movement
operates very much in the same way. If anyone has an idea, she can
put it to action and the others will help out.
ANDRI: This is like a magnifying glass. There is a lot of energy
available in the people, but right now it is spread out. The concert
will serve like a burning glass. It will concentrate all that energy
into one moment. There are hundreds of people who work full-time
to make Iceland the biggest aluminium smelter in the world. Every
day they show up for work and keep on doing what they are doing
and when there is a little wave of protest, they just wait for it to
run out and then they start again. But the machine is deaf. Even
if people are protesting, the machine is deaf and it doesn’t hear
them. People imagine that in a democratic society like this one, it is
enough to write well-formulated and logical articles and partake in
a democratic debate to change things. But it doesn’t seem to matter
what you say. The voices of ordinary citizens are not heard.
BjöRk: I think the atmosphere is also very different from what it
was when we did Hætta! concert in ’06, especially among young
people, and outside of Reykjavík. At first, people thought they had
no influence; this thing would go through, no matter what they
thought. But now I think, and that is what makes me especially ex-
cited for this concert, there is an awakening. I’m not exactly excited
to push my own opinions and have people agree with me, I’m ex-
cited that people want to be heard. I’m excited to hear from people
outside Reykjavík, people who live in Húsavík, and other places
where projects are being planned. These people have not had a
strong voice in the media.
ANDRI: This is something that Björk has really put in perspective,
because she has been around the world to “declare independence,”
but there is something that happens when people are offered an oil
refinery or an aluminium smelter, when people are offered the big
solution and they anticipate billions coming in to the economy in
the next three to four years, for them, that’s a lifetime. Usually, it is
difficult to anticipate the next six months, but three years, that’s a
lifetime, so people become blinded to their own capabilities and
opportunities. They stop asking what they can do, and every op-
portunity becomes a threat to the Big Solution. You need to prove
to the nation that you really need the Big Solution, so people talk
themselves into complete hopelessness, to the level where there is
nothing else available in the situation. It becomes a battle of un-
independence. It is absurd. This idea of independence… we are
led to believe that our health-care system, our education system,
our very existence, is thanks to aluminium.
ThE GRAPEVINE: What is your goal? What is it that you want to
achieve?
BjöRk: Me, personally, I am not absolutely against dams. I could
live with dams like Sigalda and the old smaller dams, what rubs me
wrong is that we are doing it in the service of these big corpora-
tions. I came up through the grassroots, and I’ve never signed a
big contract, I’ve been offered a five-years salary for doing a car
advertisement, but I have always said no and maintained my own
independence. This is where I am coming from, and I think that is
why I am still making music today. I have total creative freedom. I
believe that we should stop thinking: “Let’s do so much awesome
with Alcoa,” but rather just do one third of what we have done with
them, but instead do it all by ourselves, own it ourselves, and make
something of it ourselves. If it is aluminium, we should make some-
thing from the aluminium here in Iceland, and put a stamp on it:
“made in Iceland,” and sell it, rather than just be a stop for primary
production. I think it so important that we own ourselves. I think
that of all the people who opposed the Kárahnjúkar dam project,
if it had been three times smaller, made by Icelanders – if this was
a innovative start-up by Icelanders – and we would maintain all
the profits for ourselves and make our own product from it here
in Iceland, I think probably half of the people who were against
Kárahnjúkar would have been of another opinion.
ThE GRAPEVINE: So for you, this is just a matter of being inde-
pendent?
BjöRk: It is not just a matter of being independent, because I am
an environmentalist as well. But I think there is a certain percent
of Iceland that is possible to dam, without going to the excesses of
Kárahnjúkar. But I do think it is important. We always continue to
be a colony. We’ve been brainwashed, first we had the Danes rul-
ing us, then we had the US Army and there was this panic when the
army left. It is like people can’t make independent decisions. The
first steps are always scary for a grassroots operation. What should
we do next? What is good for me? Or my village? My country? But
people have to stay the course for those first difficult ten years or
fifty years or what it becomes. This is something I feel I know some-
thing about. I have been a part of grassroots operation from the
The Machine is Deaf Author Andri Snær and Björk are fighting a battle to keep Iceland independent. And preserve its nature.
WhO:
Björk Guðmundsdóttir
BORN:
Reykjavík, November 21, 1965
OCCUPATION:
Musician
DISCOGRAPhY:
Volta (2007)
Medúlla (2004)
Vespertine (2001)
Homogenic (1997)
Post (1995)
Debut (1992)
WhO:
Andri Snær Magnason
BORN:
Reykjavík, July 14, 1973
OCCUPATION:
Author
WhAT:
Dreamland
– A Self-Help Manual for a
Frightened Nation (2006)
Lovestar (2002)
The Blue Planet (1999)
green energy amountS to aBout 5% in the
european market. there are many compa-
nieS in europe that are willing to pay premi-
um priceS for green energy. we are ruining
iceland’S image aS a green country.