Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2019, Blaðsíða 42

42The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12— 2019
Mother Tongue
Baths
G! Festival’s literary program features diaspora
writers and a Meejah soundbath
Words & Photo: a rawlings
Festival
G! Festival took place in The Faroe
Islands July 12-14th
A spotlight falls on Siri Ranva
Hjelm Jacobsen. She stands to read
aloud a poem in the Fjósið cow-
shed. Moments later, Danish band
Meejah kicks into their song “Lys-
gænger” which closes their sound-
bath as part of the Faroe Islands’
G! Festival literature program.
Co-curated by Kim Simonsen
from Forlagið Eksil and Ida Bencke
from the Laboratory for Aesthet-
ics and Ecology, the literature
program featured the theme ‘Al-
ways Coming Home.’ The week’s
events included performances,
interviews, lectures and video
screenings by Faroese, Danish
and Icelandic authors, held both in
Tørshavn’s Nordic House and on-
site at Gøta during the G! Festival.
Taegeuk and the I Ching
For the soundbath, Meejah collabo-
rated with Faroese, Danish, and
Icelandic poets. Their music-and-
poetry set was formed around the
Taegeuk (the original Korean flag)
and the I Ch-
ing, which Mee-
jah framed by
saying, “When
you live or play
through it, you
c om e h om e .”
Each poet was
r e q u e s t e d t o
pen an origi-
nal poem using
the traditional
Korean form of
sijo, which has
the constraints of 14-16 syllables
per line, three lines, and devel-
opment of a pastoral theme. The
poets were further assigned one
of eight elements depicted on the
Korean flag: Fire ☲, Thunder ☳,
Mountain ☶, Lake ☱, Water ☵,
Earth ☷, Heaven ☰, and Wind ☴.
The poems were then performed in
between each song of Meejah’s set.
Regarding Meejah’s sound-
bath and her own contribution
for wind, Siri reflects, “It was a
beautiful way of bringing differ-
ent artists together in a very egali-
tarian space. I really appreciated
that people spoke in the languages
they felt comfortable speaking in.
Some translated, some spoke in
native languages, some spoke in
native languages and then trans-
lated. The fact that was left open
made a beautiful tonal artwork.”
Home loss
The strong multilingual presence
in the group of writers prompts
songwriter and lead vocalist
Mai Young Øvlisen to comment,
“That’s why we are attracted to
the literature programme. I in-
tegrated the Faroese language
because everyone on the Faroe Is-
lands, they need to learn Danish
as part of their education. Even
though it’s a country and a lan-
guage, our neighbours, it’s a way
of investing in another culture.”
Meejah is on the Faroese re-
cord label TUTL, and they are the
first Danish band to write lyrics
in Faroese. Mai
first visited the
Faroe Islands in
2 0 03 , a nd ha s
been part of the
music communi-
ty ever since. She
visits two or three
times per year.
Mai continues,
“The Faroese lan-
guage is strong,
t he c u lt u re i s
strong, but that’s
in spite of the Danish culture try-
ing to dominate. On the Faroe Is-
lands, when there is mist on the
cow window, you just have to take
your finger [and wipe to find]
that pain of a few hundred years
not being able to speak your lan-
guage in public schools, churches,
government. Because I’m Korean
and adopted [into a Danish fam-
ily], I can relate to that. The point
of loss is a way that you can con-
nect with other people. In the
Korean culture, the concept of
Han is the concept of loss, but
that you live strongly because
of the loss, with the loss. I think
the Faroese people do that well.”
Given home
Siri was born in Copenhagen, but
has travelled frequently to the
Faroe Islands since she was a child
to visit family on Suðuroy and
Vágar. Her first novel ‘Ø’ (which
translates from Danish as ‘Island’)
rewrites ‘The Odyssey’ through the
story of a young woman growing
up in Denmark who doesn’t know
her Faroese family. “She seeks out
Faroese people in Copenhagen,”
Siri explains, “and a Faroese guy
at a bar says, ‘You can’t even pro-
nounce your own name.’ Then she
goes to the Faroe Islands in search
of an answer to the question: How
can you long for a home you’ve
never been able to call your own?”
Siri continues, “Home is a place
that you are given. My personal ex-
perience is that I am given home
[in the Faroe Islands] on some
very specific terms that have to do
with name, blood, and history, but
also that has to do with this cul-
ture’s idea of family and belong-
ing. It’s closely connected to it be-
ing a diaspora culture. Half of the
Faroese population lives abroad.”
Faroese diaspora
Considering discussion of the
Faroese diaspora experience,
Mai mentions her first encounter
with Siri and her writing, which
led to their subsequent collabora-
tion through the soundbath. “It’s
very similar to my experience
as an adoptee. I lost my original
name, family and language. Siri
and I had a connection even before
we met. I heard her on the radio.”
When Siri brought her novel ‘Ø’
to the Faroe Islands in 2016, she
recalls, “I was extremely afraid of
how I would be received. I shared
that fear with the Faroese author
Sissal Kampmann. She said, ‘Oh,
no, everyone has a granddaugh-
ter like you. Every single Faroese
family has somebody that has left
and that is, in fact, always coming
home.’ But it is important in the
political sense to maintain that
home is given. That is a key element
in the conversation about who gets
to be home and who doesn’t.”
“The Faroese lan-
guage is strong,
the culture is
strong, but that’s
in spite of the Dan-
ish culture trying
to dominate.”
Multicultural, multimedia poetry and sound at G! Festival
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