June
17
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Of Wild Spirit and Bewilderment (JB)
Today, June 17, is Iceland’s Independence Day, the day when the national character is embraced despite the chance of foul weather.
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This summer’s fishing season began in the glacial river Blanda in Austur-Húnavatnssýsla county in Northwest Iceland only last week, and so far a total of 15 salmon have been caught in the river, despite challenging conditions.
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LETTERS AND COMMENTS
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Thoughts regarding appearance of large spray painted letters on natural monuments in the north of Iceland in the spring of 2013
It’s not really the nature or concept of this art creation that bothers me, just the careless, selfish and covert methods with which it was created. It seems likely that it could just as well have been created without causing permanent harm to our landscape, and I have to wonder whether it is shame of that realization that explains why no one has stepped forth to claim responsibility for this art.
(By the way, I will purposefully not put the word Art into quotation marks here, as doing so seems to me to severely undervalue and derail most all discussions of this nature. Art is by far too large a term for me to step forth and try to define according to my own notions. Doing so would seem to me no different and just as futile as trying to stipulate whether marmalade counts as jam.)
There are places in Iceland where moss has been ripped up in the sides of mountains thirty or forty years ago so that people could spell their names. My parents used to point them out when we drove by, and talk about how selfish it was to try and take scenery that belongs to everyone who passes by and make it yours. These names were written in the sides of the mountains before I was born, and because moss is a plant that lives for a very, very long time, they will probably be there after I am gone too, all because someone had to leave their mark.
This is not carving your name into a tree or spray-painting an underpass; it is destroying and taking ownership over public land that belongs to everybody in a very permanent deliberate way. It is denying us the right to see our environment without your infringement upon it.
We do so many horrendous things to this planet, and we have certainly shaped its landscape and left our mark on it, and maybe it’s just something aching to patriotism speaking, but Iceland has always seemed very special to me precisely because there is still so much untarnished and untouched land there; land that belongs to no one person. That’s getting pretty rare in this world.
I don’t know all the facts behind the matter or who exactly is responsible, but I just sincerely hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. If the artwork is meant as some sort of remark on the things that we do to this planet and our preconceived notions of the permanence or non-permanence of landscape and whether it belongs in man’s mind or in the thing itself and yada-yada-yada… Well that’s all very interesting, I agree, and possibly even valid points to make, but here it feels as if the methods with which the question was asked does more harm than the importance of the answer. Or perhaps I am simply being selfish, and would rather not have seen our landscape sacrificed so that someone could make this point. I think I have that right.
Our landscape is already so open and strange and beautiful. There is nothing that we can truly do to improve it other than just protect it and care for it to the best of our ability, a task which is getting more difficult every day.
It’s already a work of art; it doesn’t need your signature.
Bjorn Halldorsson, from Reykjavík Iceland, currently residing in Glasgow, Scotland.
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It’s not really the nature or concept of this art creation that bothers me, just the careless, selfish and covert methods with which it was created. It seems likely that it could just as well have been created without causing permanent harm to our landscape, and I have to wonder whether it is shame of that realization that explains why no one has stepped forth to claim responsibility for this art.
(By the way, I will purposefully not put the word Art into quotation marks here, as doing so seems to me to severely undervalue and derail most all discussions of this nature. Art is by far too large a term for me to step forth and try to define according to my own notions. Doing so would seem to me no different and just as futile as trying to stipulate whether marmalade counts as jam.)
There are places in Iceland where moss has been ripped up in the sides of mountains thirty or forty years ago so that people could spell their names. My parents used to point them out when we drove by, and talk about how selfish it was to try and take scenery that belongs to everyone who passes by and make it yours. These names were written in the sides of the mountains before I was born, and because moss is a plant that lives for a very, very long time, they will probably be there after I am gone too, all because someone had to leave their mark.
This is not carving your name into a tree or spray-painting an underpass; it is destroying and taking ownership over public land that belongs to everybody in a very permanent deliberate way. It is denying us the right to see our environment without your infringement upon it.
We do so many horrendous things to this planet, and we have certainly shaped its landscape and left our mark on it, and maybe it’s just something aching to patriotism speaking, but Iceland has always seemed very special to me precisely because there is still so much untarnished and untouched land there; land that belongs to no one person. That’s getting pretty rare in this world.
I don’t know all the facts behind the matter or who exactly is responsible, but I just sincerely hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. If the artwork is meant as some sort of remark on the things that we do to this planet and our preconceived notions of the permanence or non-permanence of landscape and whether it belongs in man’s mind or in the thing itself and yada-yada-yada… Well that’s all very interesting, I agree, and possibly even valid points to make, but here it feels as if the methods with which the question was asked does more harm than the importance of the answer. Or perhaps I am simply being selfish, and would rather not have seen our landscape sacrificed so that someone could make this point. I think I have that right.
Our landscape is already so open and strange and beautiful. There is nothing that we can truly do to improve it other than just protect it and care for it to the best of our ability, a task which is getting more difficult every day.
It’s already a work of art; it doesn’t need your signature.
Bjorn Halldorsson, from Reykjavík Iceland, currently residing in Glasgow, Scotland.
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June
04
|
Re: Why I Love Iceland (A Poem)
May
20
|
Re: Tourists Rescued (and apologies)
May
19
|
Re: Eurovision Results
April
29
|
Re: Skyr
April
29
|
Belay me hearties!
April
28
|
Re: Winter’s Last Hold (ESA)
April
21
|
Re: Tourism in Iceland
The 2013 June-July issue of Iceland Review is out. Themed ‘We Are Young’ the magazine celebrates the arrival of summer by interviewing young energetic Icelanders who excel in art, sports, business and politics—and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the youngest PM in the republic’s history and the world’s youngest ruling state leader. Click here to take a look at a selection of the current issue and here to subscribe to the magazine.
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June
10
|
Blues-Rocking Away the Crisis
Iceland’s vivid and bubbly music scene sometimes hides away in small cafés and bars, and you can call yourself lucky if you happen to discover some groovy band playing unannounced in the middle of the week. Síðasti sjens is one of these hidden gems. They certainly have stories to tell, and it’s exactly their tough life experience that makes the arrangements Blues – Er ekki örugglega enginn í stuði? so authentic and thrilling.
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June
10
|
Harboring the Homegrown
The road to Höfn, a 1,690-person harbor town by the fjord Hornafjörður, is lined with reindeer. Whole herds of the wild horned animals rest peacefully on withered pastures, grace next to sheep and horses and bounce along the road. Soon, Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier and the region’s biggest attraction, comes into view. Looming over Höfn, its outlet glaciers flow down from the mountains on which the bright white icecap rests.
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June
10
|
Sin Fang’s Album Release Concert
Sin Fang will celebrate the release of his third album with a release concert in Iðnó on June 12. Flowers was released in February by Morr Music and has been well received by music enthusiasts and critics alike. The concert will be supported by Vök, this year’s winners of the Icelandic Music Experiments.
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