Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.08.2014, Síða 45

45The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 11 — 2014 ART
he will hardly have sex, hardly have any
offspring, he’s just a poor little creature
trying to SURVIVE.
And people who are only trying
to SURVIVE can never form a society.
They’re just on their own, roaming
around looking for food, fighting
against the elements and their fellow
humans. That’s not society, that’s not a
culture, that’s not even a nation.
6. The Safest
Investment In The Land
To build a nation you need some kind of
pillars, something that lasts, and what
is that? Some years ago you might
have named the rock solid institutions:
Church, Banks, Parliament. But these
things all collapsed some years ago.
The church is the home of secret
dealings and the
abuse of children
and women,
the banks came
crumbling down,
all in the same
week, and the only
people who have
faith in politics
and parliament
anymore are the
politicians and
parliamentarians.
But those people
come and go;
they only last a
few years. Who remembers a prime
minister from the nineties, a minister of
finance from 1953? Were those people
necessary? Some of them, I’m sure.
Did they do something important?
Maybe one or two of them. Did they
change society? One of them did, yes,
but only for the worse.
But what about the artists and
poets, actors and musicians? Did they
matter, do they last?
Well, Megas has been around
since 1970. He’s still making music,
giving concerts, recording albums.
Bubbi has been big since 1980. Atli
Heimir has been composing since
1960. Vilborg Dagbjartsdóttir is 83,
and still writing great poems. Kristján
Davíðsson passed away last year,
aged 95. He did his best work in his
last few years and a painting by him is
still regarded as the safest investment
in Iceland. Erró finished art school in
1950 and is still our hottest painter.
When Icelanders are pressed to prove
they’re Icelandic, they start singing:
Ríðum ríðum, a poem written by
Grímur Thomsen, in the 19th century.
The national poet Jónas Hallgrímsson
celebrated his 200th birthday in 2007.
He’s never been bigger. Njáls Saga is
still the national epos, written around
1230. It has not yet collapsed, nor
become a home of child abuse; people
still have faith in the story and its
characters. It has not faded one bit
in 800 years, nor lost its value. On the
contrary, there is no value to be set
on the oldest manuscript of Njála. It is
priceless.
7. The Pillars of Society
So here we come to the conclusion:
The arts are the business you can
really count on. Classical artworks
don’t fade with time nor crash
overnight. Artists create the stuff that
lasts, making the
link between one
time and another;
they fabricate the
glue that keeps our
society together.
Culture creates
the true continuity
every nation needs.
The Sagas, novels,
artworks, poems,
musical pieces,
plays and films
are the things that
make a nation. If
you met a person
from the 14th century, at some time
travellers’ convention in Harpa, the
only thing you could talk about would
be the Sagas. Artworks form the
landscape of society; they become
its mountains and glaciers, the focal
points of the national conscience, the
cultural references reuniting people of
all ages. Artworks are the true pillars
of our society.
8. The Power of Art
You can even say that art has too
much power. It has the power to
change the way we think of ourselves
and the world. And this is exactly why
people are always picking on it. People
are afraid of art and the power of art.
Deep down they fear nothing more
than the novel that’s being written, the
film that’s being made or the music of
tomorrow.
Politicians fear art because
they know it has more power than
themselves. Politicians fear artists
because they know they’re more
powerful than themselves. That’s why
politicians keep picking on artists.
That’s why they want to cut their
budgets, censor them, or put them in
jail.
The power of art is a special one,
for it only increases when attacked.
Pussy Riot only gained power in
prison. (Maybe Putin realised this in
the end and let them free.) A book that
is attacked nearly always becomes a
best-seller. Jón Gnarr might also have
realised after his four years in office
that he has more power as an artist
than a politician. Or who has more
power today: Bono or Bush? Even
Bush knows the answer to that
one, that’s why he’s painting
puppy paintings. He realised
that the only way to keep his
power was to try to become an
artist. And he can tell you: To
decide to go to war in Iraq and
to paint one puppy painting is
an equally difficult thing. (The
result is also equally horrible,
though the puppy painting might not
kill as many people.)
That’s also the difference
between art and politics: If you do bad
art, people don’t die.
But still art can kill. It can kill
politicians. In the end Pussy Riot will
kill Putin the politician. And this is
the reason why too many politicians
dream of killing art. Deep down they
know that art is stronger than them.
And politicians are all about power. So
they’re forever jealous. That’s why too
many of them wake up every morning
thinking: I have to fight against art! I
have to write an article saying:
WE DON’T HAVE MONEY FOR
MORE ART!
OUR LIVES ARE MORE
IMPORTANT THAN ART!
OUR CHILDREN’S HEALTH IS
MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART!
You see? Art is so precious, so
important, that even the ignorant
people, even the enemies of art, even
the artless and the heartless, can only
compare it to their own lives, and the
health of their unborn children. They
would never say this about football
or ice cream: We can’t afford it, our
children are more important. They
would never say this about the gym
or the trips abroad: We can’t afford
them, our lives are more important.
They can only say this about art, for
deep down inside they know, that it
is actually more important than their
lives. It will always outlive them and
outsmart them. Therefore we can
say that not only is art a necessary
thing for every society to have, but it’s
probably the MIT of every society, the
Most Important Thing."
9. The Krónur Bills

For final proof you only need to check
out our krónur bills. They all come
with a portrait of a great Icelander,
someone we associate with true
and everlasting value. And who are
they? They’re mostly artists, poets
and painters, men and women of
culture. The poets Einar Benediktsson
and Jónas Hallgrímsson, the painter
Jóhannes Kjarval, and Ragnheiður
Jónsdóttir, famous for her design
patterns, plus the aforementioned Árni
Magnússon, have all been featured on
the Icelandic krónur bills.
10. PS
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to start
some art-fascist movement here, but
when art is under attack we have to
take to our weapons, the ones that are
mightier than the sword or the gun. So
instead of looking at me like an art-
fascist I ask you to look at me like a
lawyer, making the case for art in the
time of need.
“We can’t afford them,
our lives are more im-
portant. They can only
say this about art, for
deep down inside they
know, that it is actually
more important than
their lives. It will always
outlive them and out-
smart them.”
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