#INTERVIEWS I #HISTORY I #OPENDOORS I #LOCALCOMMUNITIES I #PROSTRATION I #CONTEMPLATION I #FREEDOM I #DECOLONIALISM I #ICELANDI #NORWAY I #DENMARK I 2023
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Life has not been easy for Embla and her daughter Kristjana. As she said, she has been “through a lot of rough times” and was only 16 when giving birth to her daughter. I met Embla And Kristjana in a very tiny community leaving in one of the most remote areas on earth, near Greenland, called The WESTFJORDS region in the far northwest of Iceland.
Here’s an excerpt of what Embla was explaining to her daughter Kristjana:
(…) life can be harsh.
Sometimes you need to change the path that you are on.
When one door closes, another one opens. (..)
…. Deeply touched by this moment of immense humanity, intense humility and firm resilience that this young mother was teaching her daughter, I suddenly felt as if I were in the middle of the universe.
The images and sounds are part of a body of work I made this winter 2022/2023 on the concept of “limits & territories”. The research I was conducting has been documented by several means, and one of them was by taking interviews.
During this research, I had the opportunity to meet other exceptional locals who all contributed to enrich my body of works: Hanna the nursery nurse on the challenges of bringing up very young children facing the behavioural impacts of technological evolution in a area surrounded by nature solely, Magnus introducing me to the Norwegian-Danish history of the island and especially its influences on the local communities of The Westfjords, Jökull a countertenor opening up the door to the enchanting Icelandic folkloric musical world through the famous lullaby song Sofðu unga ástin mín and also to ISMUS vast collection of folkloric sounds, Sigrun telling me about her books, her life, her story and being a youngster in the early days among these vast territories.
Like many countries, Iceland has been hit by several economic crisis impacting social and environmental eco-systems, communities, families and individuals. Resilient innovation schemes to (re)invent themselves are a major common driving force in Iceland. Many organisations and communities could or should potentially learn out of these individual experiences on how to be more resilient while facing turbulences and other major disruptions.
Art direction: @terra_kitoko
Images: @terra_kitoko
Soundtrack: @terra_kitoko
Supporting organisations: (1) THE WESTFJORDS RESIDENCY, (2) The ARNI MAGNUSSON INSTITUTE OF ICELANDIC STUDIES, (3) BLÁBANKINN – BLUE BANK
## Name used are fictitious to preserve confidentiality and privacy
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