Aafke Weller (NL) Emily Norton (US) Erla Silfa Thorgrimsdottir (IS) Adrien Tirtiaux (BE) Sidsel Genee (NL) Arna Óttarsdóttir (IS) main

AAFKE WELLER Project plan The landscape and its description in (Icelandic) literature is the starting-point for my research into the experience of the environment. The lyrical love for the dramatic Icelandic Landscape is a rather recent and modern fashion. With tourists, like myself, it is a naive and simple love, for which we are forgiven. For the Icelandic this love, I imagine, is complex and fragile for nature in Iceland has never been very kind to its inhabitants. Violent eruptions have caused glaciers to tear and slide, taking hundreds of surprised settlers with them into a certain death. Perils like these must be in the very genes of the Icelandic people. The rise of tourism has influenced the self image of the Islanders, promoting their country as the most beautiful and culturally rich. But how much of this is wishful thinking? In my research I will try to get some grip on the complex relationship Icelandic people have with their Island. A relationship that might have some parallels with the troublesome relationship we Dutch have with water. Former work week (2007) week is a series of 6 drawings. Each drawing is a result of meticulously tracing every picture in the newspaper of one day. The position and size of the pictures being the actual position and size of the pictures in the paper. Song of Songs (2007) 6 video portraits reading the Song of Songs duration 01:11 and again we trace these lines (2007) performative installation Tschumipaviljoen, Groningen tracing all the movement that catches my eye on the glass walls of the pavilion for the duration of one week. Foto:Marieke Kijk in de Vegte more info: Tschumipaviljoen.org