Safnanótt í Bókasafn Hafnafjarðar

For the audiovisual installation premiered at Night Museum in Bókasafn Hafnarfjarðar during Vetrarhátíð – Winter Lights Festival there are specially prepared sound tracks. They combine stories about Hidden People collected by my beloved Ísmús and electronic music and they are related to each pair of photos taken by Magdalena Lukasiak during her bike trip around Iceland looking for – yes – Hidden People.

Magdalena Łukasiak is a Polish photographer. Her photos work in unison with the music you can listen to here. In her own words she describes her works and experiences creating them.

The description of every photo will be translated to Braille’s language, so the exhibition is as inclusive as possible.

PAIR 1

When I was traveling in the Westfjords, where the emptiness stretches almost to infinity, I understood what it’s like to live in Icelandic isolation. How close nature is and how easy it is to personify it, which manifests itself in beliefs in beings from the hidden world. [Pictured: Westfjords road seen from above, near Dynjandi Falls]

Every Icelander knows what Huldufólk is. Nowadays young Icelanders say that these are only fairy tales for children. I have the impression that some people are afraid that the newcomers find this belief ridiculous. [Pictured: Siblings. Two girls are leaning against the wall, their brother is sitting with a dog on his lap. They live in Vik. They can watch Reynisfjara from the window of the house. They say that they often see elves and play with them]

PAIR 2

It’s hard for me to imagine a place where Iceland is closer and more beautiful to me. The Jökulsarlón glacier lagoon at the foot of the Vatnajökull glacier is a place that appropriates all our senses. The air smells of ice, and the cold stings the skin and is so intense that we can taste it. We hear the splash of water, seals and birds swimming in it. [Pictured: Close-up of white and blue ice blocks flowing out of a crystal blue lake].

We can hear the most about hidden people from older inhabitants of Iceland. They know them from the stories of their parents and grandparents, which they listened to in the evenings. [Pictured: A married couple. The woman is sitting on a chair, her husband is standing next to her. They are in the old post office, where the man was an employee. On the wall hangs an old post office and telephone sign, antique telephones, a radio station and a few books]

PAIR 3

Some people are afraid of loneliness and faith in elves helps them to bear it and feel safe. In Iceland, nature sets the rhythm of life. Harsh and difficult conditions make it better to treat her as a friend, with respect, but not with fear. [Pictured: A man against the backdrop of the Jökulsarlón glacier lagoon. He has fiery hair and a beard, looking into the distance. The photo is two colors: blue and orange, and may look like a symbol of Iceland known as the land of fire and ice]

Norse mythology tells a lot about hidden men, elves and trolls. We can see their presence in many places of Icelandic nature. Rocky dikes rising like monsters from the bottom of the ocean at the black beach in Vik are, according to legend, trolls that did not manage to hide before sunrise and were forever frozen in stone. [Pictured: Vik’s black beach seen from the west. Distinctive rocks in the distance. The picture is dark, the whole view is shrouded in fog].

Thank you!

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