Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2012, Síða 36

36
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2012
BRYNdÍS BJÖRNSdóTTIR
áSGEIR H. INGóLFSSON
STILLS
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM
Icelandic art through the ages. Phase one.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
“Many feel Bollywood is
very kitsch. But in many
ways we treat Icelandic na-
ture the same way—with
a lot of drama. And in a
way the Inspired By Ice-
land advert was really the
first Icelandic Bollywood
film.”
Film | Bollywood-Reykjavík
Icelandic Outlaws Get The Bollywood Treatment
A story set in eighteenth century
Iceland, based on a classic play
about a romance between outlaw
Fjalla-Eyvindur (“Eyvindur of the
mountains”) and rich widow Halla,
which is based on real-life events,
may become the first Icelandic Bol-
lywood movie. That is, it will feature
Indian actors and Hindi dialogue,
singing and dancing,
Director Arnar Sigurðsson stresses that
the film is still very much in develop-
ment, but its concept trailer, which
opened the recent Indian film festival,
has already drawn considerable atten-
tion. He already has some Bollywood
experience, having worked there for
half a year, originally as an assistant di-
rector. “It was when 'Slumdog Million-
aire' came out, a Western movie that
uses themes and settings in India,” he
tells me. “So everyone was looking for
the next crossover and I was asked to
give the ‘Western view.’”
Still he doesn’t think Fjalla-Eyvindur
will be too hard on Eastern eyes. “I don't
have to change anything in the story for
it to make sense to Indians. The reali-
ties of 18th century Iceland aren't that
far away from present day realities in
some places in India. It will be in Hindi,
but it’s not technically Bollywood as it's
not shot in Mumbai. But we want to use
that Bollywood tradition of celebrat-
ing every emotion, which sometimes
strikes Western audiences as overly
melodramatic,” he says.
It’s not all about India though. “It's
much more about Iceland than India to
me,” he says. “Perhaps it's an attempt
to open up what Icelandic culture is,
rather than narrowing it down. The fact
many feel it's a bit crazy raises interest-
ing questions. We feel making pictures
that look to Hollywood or Europe as a
standard is the most natural thing in
the world, so why not India? And this is
a certain exercise in exoticism—do we
view films differently based on the form
they’re put in? Do we allow ourselves
to enjoy things we’d sneer at in another
context?”
But Arnar stresses that this shouldn’t
be just a gimmick: “Of course there is a
certain built-in artistic irony. But I want
to put this together with honesty and
integrity. And I haven't found anybody
in India that finds the project strange at
all. Taking a good story that has proven
itself over centuries and making it in
Hindi is the most natural thing in the
world to them.”
Having been abroad for a good part
of the last decade, he says it’s strik-
ing how concerned Icelandic artists
are with being Icelandic artists, rather
than just artists. “I don't really feel like
participating in projects that will nar-
row down what Icelandic culture is. I'd
much rather open it up,” Arnar says.
INSPIREd BY BOLLYWOOd
The singing and dancing will certainly
be most foreign to Western audiences.
“Many people here think of the song
and dance as opposites to the story, an
interruption to the plot,” Arnar explains.
“But I believe it's essential to the plot.
The song and dance emits the emotion
that the love is so strong they're ready
to give up a privileged life and go hide
in the mountains. And after every song
and dance scene, the mood changes
and there is a shift.”
And Bollywood may not be as far re-
moved from Iceland as we might think.
“Many feel Bollywood is very kitsch. But
in many ways we treat Icelandic nature
the same way—with a lot of drama. And
in a way the Inspired By Iceland advert
was really the first Icelandic Bollywood
film. The approach they took, with peo-
ple dancing within well known tourist
locations and enthusiastically emitting
their joy—that was very much like Bolly-
wood does it. Icelandic nature has been
made so kitsch that it's already a big
Bollywood drama."
The music in the trailer is Icelandic
and while most think it’s impressive,
Arnar isn’t sure that he has found the
perfect musical way of bridging the
gap between these two worlds. “The
aim is to have both Icelandic and Hindi
music—music that works within both
worlds. That's not easy and it’s one of
the reasons this development process
will take time. I've been looking into
this with some Icelandic musicians;
it doesn't matter if the musicians that
perform the final music will be Icelan-
dic or Indian, what matters is that it
works within both worlds. We're trying
to put two things together that have
not met before and try to find harmony.
But Icelandic rhyme singing and Indian
mantras are not really too far apart.
There is kinship there.”
MOVIES ON FACEBOOK
He admits that there's added pressure
with such early attention, but sees the
benefits of having a dialogue with the
audience at such an early stage. “Films
are using social media much more be-
fore they actually shoot. Look at 'Iron
Sky' [a film currently showing in Reyk-
javík, which revolves around Nazis
fleeing to the moon], which began as
a poster in 2007. Then they used crowd
sourcing to budget the film. This is what
many producers are starting to look at.
We might not need the gatekeepers
anymore—those who decide what is a
good idea and not. Now you can speak
to the audience directly.” That dialogue
has already started and those who
want to participate can find “Fjalla-Ey-
vindur og Halla” on Facebook or check
out the film’s website, www.loveoutlaw.
com. The concept trailer can be found
at both locations.
“Why is she wearing a duck costume?” Who
hasn’t heard this question thrown out there
at least once in their lifetime? Various occa-
sions demand that we wear a duck costume,
and just the other day there was such an
occasion. It was May 12, Global Day of Ac-
tion, and the person wearing the costume
was a marching member of the To Have
and To Need movement of artists in Berlin.
Elaborate, large letters were carved out for
the march, with each one of the artists in
the movement carrying one to collectively
spell 'Haben und Brauchen’ (“To Have and
To Need”). Posters with the movement's
demands were also brought along. The de-
mands of the movement all relate to the arts'
diminishing autonomy within the confine-
ments of neoliberalism, where art is taken
advantage of, along with its essential role to
be at the heart of ‘the commons.’
In transitional times, art wants to be ac-
knowledged for its capabilities of bringing
forth changes in society. As soon as such
demands are made, they seem to be incor-
porated into the art world's idea of itself.
Different ways are found to express this no-
tion of art, many of which can be seen at the
currently on-going seventh Berlin Biennale.
This year's curator, Artur Zmijewski, has
set out to prove the truly effective nature of
art through different means, ranging from
inviting the Occupy movement to occupy a
museum, thus giving them enough white
wall space to express themselves, to setting
up different kinds of congresses that address
real social and political issues in real set-
tings.
Upcoming in Reykjavik is an art festival
that aims, yet again, to address urgent is-
sues for the sake of the commons. The cu-
rator, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, is setting up
an international visual art project that will
open up existing borders in order to create
an unexpected dialogue between the artists
themselves as well as the various Nordic
art institutions taking part. Through this
dialogue, Jonatan wants to extend the es-
tablished categorisation of culture and iden-
tity by creating a so-called third space, which
Homi K. Bhabha defines as an “interruptive,
interrogative, and enunciative” space of new
forms of cultural meaning. This, as Jonatan
states in the introduction text to the festival,
might create the setting for “revolutionary
happenings.” Jonatan therefore believes that
it is with the proper Nordic funding system
and within the terms of the cultural art insti-
tution that the tools will be provided to open
up such relevant issues, all under the title of
(I)ndependent people.
The aforementioned duck in the May
12 demonstration is the anomaly that gives
us another idea of the big picture. An artist
wanted to make herself more individually
present in the demonstration, by relating to
the colour scheme of the movement—the
duck costume was black and white as were
the movement's written demands. This
gesture and the response it garnered can be
seen as a reminder of the limited breathing
space the art world tends to allow itself when
it takes up arms to implement change. Art
too easily succumbs to the model laid down
by what it intends to critique, instead of op-
erating on terms that would actually ignite
the change which would give it reason to yell:
Watch out! Duck!
Art | Festival
Watch Out! duck!