Week 12: Exit Plan
LungA School Fall Semester 2018
Paragraph 12 Duration: Performance key: Situation key:
156 hours Exhale - gratitude - salute Epilogue - categorical overlap between composition
n and noise
PASTA PUT IT IN A POT PASTER PUT IT IN A POT PAST PUT IT IN A POT boil the memories with salty eyes goodbye
[by Aoife]
Jonatan Spejborg Juelsbo + Lasse Høgenhof As interviewed on Seydisfjörður Community Radio 107.1fm Friday 13th December 2018
Claire: Oh we’re live! Jonatan: We’re live? Shan: Hello! We are here on the radio, using Lasse’s first laptop that he bought in Aarhus. Lasse: It was not my first laptop. It was my first Macbook. S: Oh, Macbook. Oh. Thank you for correcting me Lasse. C: We’re live in the studio with the two Lunga Principals. You might have to help me pronounce your surnames. Jonatan… J: Spejborg... C: Spej-borg... Juelsbo! And Lasse… Høgenhof. L: Perfect. C: Thanks for joining us. J: Thanks for inviting us. S: I think we’re all a little bit sleepy here in the studio today. But we have candles, and coffee, so I think that will help the mood. We’re in our last week here. We’re in the day of Gratitude. So I suppose I’d like to say firstly, thankyou to Claire! For all your love and support. And also a big thankyou to Jonatan, and Lasse, for our time here, and everything that has been. C: Thank you Shan! S: Oh, thank you Claireky. C: Ok. Let’s get into it, I’m just gonna, pow-pow-pow, ask some questions. First question…. How did you guys meet? L: Do you remember? J: [laughs] No, I don’t remember, sort of, exactly. I know we met in Aarhus, at some point, I think it was, yeah I actually don’t remember if it was after I started the same school that Lasse was attending. Or if it was before that we
had already met. It probably doesn’t matter that much. But we met mostly I would say, yeah one summer here in 2010, when we both went to the festival, we’d both been invited. And then we met again the year after when we bought a house together. C: [laughs] Oh you just jumped right in. J: And then we met again, a third time, when we started renovating the house in ’13. And of course we saw each other in between that but I guess that marks a few points. L: I have a first memory of you. It’s not the first time I met you, it’s just my first memory. You had a dynamite night. It must have been in 2011. At this point we’d probably been in each other’s spheres of existence for a few years. I remember Jonatan coming home from Colombia. I think maybe it was the day you came home. Ah, you know which day I’m talking about? J: [laughing] Yeah… L: Look at that smile. Look at that! And I think maybe… this was a very particular moment actually. I guess it’s in a way very relevant. Jonatan had a very, um, a very vivid time in Colombia, and all that time he took, compressed, with him home from Colombia and added it to his life immediately, when he came home. That’s how I experienced it. We had a friend called Max, he is Swedish, and he lived on a boat in the harbour in Aarhus. I lived there from time to time when I was living in Aarhus as well. We decided to have a summer party on the boat. And that was also, conveniently enough, a welcome home party for Jonatan who had been to Colombia. I remember you spent a lot of this day in this little bar called Cirkuskroen in Aarhus, with your sort of old mates. I was not with you at Cirkuskroen. We didn’t have a relationship where we would arrive to a party together, but definitely at this point there was an assumed connection. I remember this one moment where I’m sitting upstairs. It was an old boat that was used post-second world war to remove mines from the sea — a Swedish boat. Upstairs there was an open terrace. Not a roof terrace, but an open place you could sit — a really nice place – it was just next to the steering house. There were some benches and a rail, I remember sitting up there talking to some people. People were in a very good mood, it was a very good party. Earlier some people had been jumping from the mast. You didn’t, but some people did. It was a crazy thing to do because you had to jump pretty far out from the boat so not to jump directly into the deck of the boat. People were really happy. A lot of euphoria was happening.
And then I’m sitting on this bench. And suddenly Jonatan, he decides he needs a drink. I’m pretty sure you needed a drink? And then you, he sort of just walks on the rail, balancing on the rail, and he’s very, very, very, very, very drunk. Not drunk in like the sleepy way. But drunk in the euphoric way. The like, I’m er… I’m… C: Invincible! L: Invincible! Where you become so light that you almost don’t have to lift your body yourself. We all know the feeling, when you’re at a party. You’re perfectly drunk. You’re wearing the right clothes. Also maybe your hair is just how you want it. And um. You’re attractive. And everything’s just like… great. Anyway Jonatan walks on the rail, and then he almost falls off the boat. Just at that moment I look at Jonatan walking, and he almost falls off the boat. He just, exactly manages to sort of like “ooooh---oooh” to catch the, to not fall down. And we’re talking he would fall down into not necessarily the water, but it would have been a very bad fall, because he would also have fallen into um, because the boat was parked against the harbour, so he would have fallen into the dock… S: Ooof. L: So he would have… it’s pretty high up, maybe four or five metres up. So it would have been a serious fall. And Jonatan, he just looks at me, and then he just like… giggles. [laughter] L: And he’s just like “ooh!” And he just thinks it’s the most… like, “ooh, that was close!” But he didn’t fall off because as you know, he was invincible. And I just remember that eye contact is the first really cheeky moment I had with Jonatan. Which is a moment I think was necessary because otherwise I think we would never have become like friend-friends. Because I think that maybe I have a hard time being friends with people that are not cheeky. And then I remember — now that we are live of course you have the opportunity to roast each other a bit — J: Oh no! L: But I remember then, fast forward to the same night, I remember you had sex… on the… on the… J: I didn’t have sex!
[Shan and Claire are in hysterics] L: I thought you did, but you told me later that it was not possible because you were too... invincible… [laughing]… to have sex. But I remember because I used to be a little bit in love with the girl… C: The one that he slept with. Well, tried to sleep with? L: Yeah. J: Which I didn’t! C: Ok, you didn’t! L: But I will say that she was in love with Jonatan. As I understand. But these are the two first memories I have of you. I remember you on the rail, and then, on the other boat, on the other side. Like sort of coming back from this situation that apparently played out in… I don’t know, it’s not important. It’s just those are my two first memories. Especially the one on the rail. I was like… C: That’s a guy that I wanna run a school with! He has balance, he can come back real quick! L: Yeah, at least like… you could go on adventures with this person. C: Cool, that’s nice. Maybe you could also talk about how you ended up in Seyðisfjörður, if that’s not too boring for you. I’m sure you’ve talked about it a lot, but maybe there’s some less boring aspect of that. Or you could talk about how it was to buy a house together! J: That was easy. I think that was easy. I mean, there was Lasse and Björt and Andreas. They had been sort of talking about it for a while. And so for me it was easy, I just entered the conversation, or was invited into the conversation in 2011, the summer when we bought the house… and of course we didn’t really know why we bought it. C: Did you plan to live in it? J: No. We didn’t plan anything. Not that I remember. C: You just wanted to buy a house? Get into the property market haha!
J: I think we just planned to have a space that we would go to. S: So it wasn’t even a residency, you weren’t thinking of it as a residency? J: No. It was not clear. We were just sort of intrigued and… well, more than intrigued. I don’t know what the word is, but we really wanted to be able to come back to Seyðisfjörður when it wasn’t the festival. And, I think the process of coming to live here, I think that’s also — in relation to Lasse’s story — that’s how my earliest memories are of actually meeting Lasse but also meeting the other people that we have the house with. I remember I left in the summer in 2011. We decided to buy the house, I left before we bought it, and then Lasse came here. So I wasn’t here when we bought the house. You came up here straight from Colombia actually, and then bought the house. S: So Lasse went to Colombia after Jonatan? J: No, the story he told was in 2012. We bought the house in ’11. So Lasse had been to Colombia one year before me. L: Yeah, we already had the house at this point. J: But we didn’t know each other really, at this point. I remember actually, in late ’11, after we bought the house, in the Fall. We came up here on the boat, Lasse and Björt and me and a guy called Thomas who’s an architect, who we decided to — because we knew we had to do something about the house — so we invited this friend of ours, Thomas, to come and help us draw the new house that we wanted. And start dreaming about what kind of house it could be and stuff. And then I think we spent two weeks here in October in 2011. That’s — I very much feel like those weeks were when I started being in Seyðisfjörður. Not at all in a sort of community way, but started being in the house. It was so spectacular in those weeks. Like in a house that was falling apart and we were all just walking around in our bathrobes talking about visions for architecture. Yeah. I remember just, especially listening to the conversations that Lasse and Thomas and Björt had. I was there for a couple of weeks, just feeling like I was listening in on conversations. That I just enjoyed so much. And making plans that I had never thought about for myself. So I was sort of, you could say, a little bit taken by the house in a way that I hadn’t been before, and by the place in a way that I hadn’t been before, and by the people. That was also when I really started seeing Lasse and Björt as… sort of imagining that these were people that would be in my life. We, at
that point, had already decided that we were never going to sell the house. So they were some special weeks. I think that’s when it started. And then of course in the summer of 2012, I started being here more and more. I think actually just from November, December 2012, was when I more moved here. Then we started renovating in ’13, and that was another stage. When we suddenly had to actually do something together and live really close in a 4 metre tiny space full of sawdust for four months with no money. C: That sounds really shit! J: It was so great! It was, yeah… shit and fun! It was mostly fun. Yeah, a little um… it was also pretty just head first, into uh, no water. C: Into sawdust... J: But we survived. S: It worked out! J: Yeah, it’s working out! S: I don’t know if this is a silly question but, in some of the conversations with the LungAs this week we’ve been chatting about finding direction and finding some form of purpose. Was this a time in your life where it was like, “ok this makes sense to be doing this right now,” kind of thing? J: Yeah, I think maybe that’s what it was, mostly, for me. I still feel like we’re figuring out what it is, both the school and Heima and all these things. But at this point it was… I think two things that it was. It was a place that we had that I knew I could always go to. And it was some people that had agreed that we would have each others’ back if anyone was properly fucked at some point and needed something, they could go to the place, and there would be someone to help and take care. And that was just, I guess at this point in my life that was all I needed to feel completely safe, or have a sort of feeling of sufficient support to jump into whatever. So I think it just felt really crucial at this point. I had no clue what I was doing, there were no plans involved in any of this. C: So the school’s been going now for five years, and I’m sure there’s just so much and this is probably a challenging question, but I wanted to ask if you’ve got a top three… favourite… LungA moments. If you can narrow it down? [Laughs] Or maybe there’s just one.
J: Top three… C: Or maybe the moments where you were the most challenged? Or kind of just like, “what the hell have we done?” J: [Laughs] Oh, that’s difficult. S: There was that one time when someone set a house on fire. C: Did they? J: Amanda almost did, didn’t she? S: Yeah, true. That was nice. C: [laughs] J: I feel like there were a lot of almost-on-fire situations. L: I think it’s a good question. There’s just so many different types of moments. There’s some of the moments that sort of… you know there’s moments between us, the small tiny moments that exemplify something really great. Something a little bit... like Jonatan on the rail. I have a few hundred of those moments. You know, tiny moments. S: The setting up the radio moment? L: Setting up the radio moment for example. Or the lobster soup after the very challenging Week One we had with Shan the first time he was here. We had you know the initial conversation where everyone sort of checks in to the situation of being here, and tells a little bit about themselves — that process went a little bit out of hand and we had to, together, figure out — so, this happened, how do we locate ourselves now, and how do we move from that? Jonatan bought a lobster soup on my birthday, the following Monday, and we went out and slept in the sweat lodge and had a fire and talked about it. It was a very good lobster soup. It was a very good night. Also when you gave me the binoculars without saying anything in the loft, that was very sweet. It was like, just past midnight, also my birthday. And you just like — we were living in the same room in Heima for the first few years, on the top floor — he just like, “shwoo”…. slid them over. J: It was a gift.
C: A gift? J: A birthday gift. L: He bought binoculars. C: Oh that’s nice. L: But then there have also been really countless magic moments of artworks, like, where there’s just essential works. It happens in all programs actually, there are just works where it sticks to you in a way that it touches something very deep. And in many different ways. I think something like this just happened this Sunday, for example, in the sense of an omnipresence of something, or an omni… it was something that really was gathering. I think everyone who was a part of those two hours… they’ll be fine this winter. C: They knew that they were part of something that was much beyond themselves. And their own experience. L: Yeah. And then once in a while there’s also something extremely concrete that happens. Like, you know, a certain paper cut. Or not a paper cut like this but like, what’s it called, when you cut something out? C: Like a cut-out? L: Like a cut-out. With a certain quote from the Old Testament. For example. Or with a very neatly cleaned space with a brush in front of it. And um… or two women singing “something is about to happen” for eighteen minutes, without playing the drums. There’s also a third kind. Jonatan will probably have his own kinds. But there’s always — it happens every time in every program — it sort of turns out that a person fits, has a time here, that sort of stretches over the whole time, that looks odd, but it’s just perfect. It’s like the perfect dance. Or they find a way of being here that when you think about it afterwards it’s absolutely amazing that that happened. That that person ended up fitting in or being here in this way so it stretches out over, like you found a way of being here together or a way of talking together, or a way to stimulate this person. And I’m not necessarily talking about Jonatan and I. Though also us. But more the collective that sort of appears over time. Within itself is also a subject. We can speak about that too. You know every group has a very significant poetry to it that is easy to forget but it’s also easy to remember. I
guess that’s maybe why it’s a little bit hard to answer the question. Or it’s a way of answering the question. J: I think also at least that’s how I remember all the different groups. Because I remember them so clearly. Who was in them. It takes a little while to dig into those memories, but it starts with just the particular poetry of a group. Then that brings it all back. There’s a certain — ‘vibe’ is not a good word for it — a thing… that is very particular to each group. That is very different from time to time. That is both a colour and a sensation and a taste and a frequency. All these things. That always starts the whole thing in terms of remembering, I think, for me. And placing it. And then all the faces pop up, of who it was, all the situations pop up, and I agree there are many different kinds of situations that have their own thing. I think what always moves me a lot is when you have the feeling that they really — everyone who’s here, us included — starts to both recognise and appreciate each others’ weirdness. All the quirkiness of everyone. Not just allowing it to exist but actually, more than that, somehow creating conditions for it to flourish and be a motor for a lot of things. It’s… it’s really surprising. S: You recently caught up with some people from the past. J: Like you? S: Oh, well, yeah, like me! I was thinking about in America when you guys went recently and caught up with a few people who I’m sure would’ve brought back some memories. How was your time in New York? J: It was fun! It was… I don’t know how to describe this time. It was good to see everyone. And in terms of the different poetries of different groups — they were from different groups, but in a way they were also, that has also formed its own thing. I guess because of the relations that you have with each other from previous connections. When sitting with Amal and Aaron and Luli, I didn’t really think about how they weren’t here at the same time. And actually the same when like, for example when I meet in Copenhagen, or wherever, people who have been here at different times. I completely forget — it always surprises me actually that they have been here at different times. Because they’re also part of a thing that is the same place in my mind. I can see it together as one thing. C: Do you think it would be really weird for you if all the LungA groups got together at one time and we all had a giant party? J: I think it would be mostly weird if they were also wearing all our clothes.
[laughter] C: Yeah well, that happens a lot. J: Less and less. We make sure it happens less and less. It’s super weird. L: We’re out of clothes. J: Haha yeah. We don’t have any. We stopped wearing them. C: I started giving you mine! L: Haha. But I think it’s also maybe related to our presence here. At least — when I was in New York I didn’t think a lot about how this was representing something that happened once. It seemed very much like just a new thing. And I can feel it also when I meet the people who’ve been here before. I just really don’t think so much about their time here. I think it’s something with my character in general. That I just don’t spend so much time on looking… C: Nostalgia? L: On nostalgia, or it’s just that I don’t dwell with it a lot. It’s not something that is in my nature, in my culture with myself, to spend a lot of time on. So I also just assume connection. Besides meeting Luli and Aaron and Amal and… we didn’t get to see Maika’i... but besides meeting all them, suddenly at the seminar Olav also popped up. Olav was in the very first full program that we did. So that means four years ago now he left. And I remember everything about Olav. Like I remember the works he did and how he loved bending wood and how he had this really great cheekiness and slowness about him. And so many questions. And then suddenly he was there at the seminar, we had no idea he was coming! Did you? J: No, I didn’t. L: Suddenly he was just there, you know, he has this really big jaw. Yeah a thick beard. That never really grows out but you can just see if it grew out it would be thick. And then he was just there and he talked a lot about the school back then. It was very weird for me. J: He said such a good thing. It was the first thing he said to us after we saw him sitting there while we were presenting, and then went down to him. He said that when he saw Lasse move onstage, it reminded him of a point when he was at LungA, when they did a morning where they were imitating each others’ walks and manners. And he sort of, by seeing Lasse move onstage,
the way he walked, that was sort of what brought everything back to him. He said he was walking so much like himself on that stage! C: That’s reassuring! L: And then he said, “I thought about you every day.” Just generally, he said a lot of sweet things. S: Does he live in New York? L: No, but he has an internship there as a conservator. So he conserves sculptures. But I still think, I still assume, and this is not a vision or anything, this is just a feeling, I still assume sort of — and this is nothing to do with the school, it’s just something we’re talking about here — that they are like, ever-relevant. They didn’t go away. And it’s the same thing. Both when they are very personal and when they are bound up in some sort of context. I don’t see old students as something that belongs in the past. It seems like something more like, “how’s that going now?” And then of course, at the same time, I see every group as so particular to itself that it’s almost not relevant anymore when it ends. It dissolves completely. It’s relevant in another way that seems to be so complex that... at least I can’t comprehend it anyway. Because there’s so many groups and friendships that have nothing to do with me. So I think that’s also a part of my presence here, that I just sort of push it away. I have a relationship to it, but it’s spread in so many different circles and relationships that I’m letting a little bit of that go, to some extent. C: It feels like the exhibition with the cars actually was a nice metaphor for this. It’s kind of like you just, you know that you’re one little part in it but you also have to let go of that bigger — to the attachment of knowing all of it. Ok. So! You’re really good at running the LungA School. But if you weren’t running the LungA School, what do you think you’d be doing? I have some ideas! J: Yah. I would do nothing. At least for a while. C: I thought you might be a good astronaut. J: No I have a thing with my ears. So I can’t… the pressure… my eardrums they would puff if I…
S: I have a thing with my ears too, so I couldn’t be an astronaut. J: Yeah, I can’t really be an astronaut and I can’t be a diver so, ah… C: LungA School for you, haha! J: So yeah I’m stuck here. L: I’m too big. S: [Laughs] is that really a thing? L: I can’t be in the rocket. I could be in the sea though. S: But you’d get bored pretty easily. No? In the sea? L: Um, yeah. Yeah. C: All that water. L: Same, same. J: I guess the question is both easy and difficult. Because it’s difficult in the way that I have no clue, at all, about what I would be doing. And easy in the way that I would be doing the same. Just, in a different way. But that’s also why, as Lasse said — so many of the things have nothing to do with the school. The school’s just an excuse to make an invitation. The school is an excuse to have, you would say, facilities. It’s an excuse for many things so you can actually have the kind of praxis here and have the kind of conversations that we’re interested in having. And if it wasn’t for the school I’d just find another excuse to do some of those things. C: Like in an office job? J: Yeah! Or I don’t know, work at a pizza place or something. We’ve talked about it many times. Especially when running out of money. That, what form could we then give? Maybe it’s not a school anymore, maybe it’s not even here anymore. And in that way I don’t feel so… I think the form now is really interesting and it can offer something really special. It’s also of course unique, because it is this particular form. But I’m also interested in trying other forms and not feeling attached to a particular form. I think that also ties into not thinking about the school as a legacy and all these things, I never really think about it. It’s something that I feel is experienced by other
people, more than it’s experienced by me. In this whole thing. C: Yeah well because you guys, you have to stay here beyond us. And then go through it all again. So it’s always evolving for you guys more than maybe it is for the students who come visit for three months and then… J: It’s… at least it’s just a different thing. Of course we’ve been doing something for five years now. Like this conversation — a five year conversation — is a long time for a conversation. And that’s also what’s been interesting: doing this for five years, working with Lasse in this way for five years, and being able to sustain something for that long. Not the thing itself, but the content of the conversation and the relationship to the town maybe, and the facilities that are growing. That, I think, is what’s interesting — to put a lot of time into it and be here for many years. I have been here for many years. And yeah that’s, I guess, significantly different than if you come and stay here for three months and then leave again. It’s hardly comparable, probably. There’s just sort of overlaps between those experiences when we engage with the people that arrive or become completely part of that soup. L: But I guess this is also just a question of scale… because we are also just here for a moment, compared to maybe some of the people that have lived for generations in this town. We were just talking to somebody yesterday who remembers the last boom of artists. Artists that were here in the beginning of the zeros. All the activities and parties and exhibitions in everyone’s gardens and living rooms: there was stuff happening all the time. They have another scale as well with us. I experience it a lot as a scale thing. Where, for example, the students — they have another scale towards the people who just come here for a few days and see what’s going on. Those people have no idea what actually happens here in this universe of three months. So it just keeps on… And I like being aware of these scales, but I feel like it’s actually a pleasure to be able to feed from these different scales. You talked to Ola Maja the other week. I haven’t read the whole interview but I read some of it — and she’s here, she exists, but she enjoys being with you in your scale because you bring something different. But she’s there in another scale — she talks about generations and childhood, and she represents something else. And then suddenly, who was Isaiah’s friend? Not George? C: Noah. L: Noah — comes in, and he was another scale. It’s almost like different bends in mirrors that reflect whatever is happening. I think this is one of the things that I’m interested in. We have our position, we have our bending. And
then other people have their bending. It’s easy to forget that we all haven’t been here forever. But sometimes when something looks weird, it’s good to remember that we’re all here in these different scales: even us, in our scale. I think that’s very fascinating. There’s also something about our position. We’ve talked about how when you’re at a social event, you either walk around and shake everyone’s hands or you wait for everyone to come around and shake your hand. I think before these [LungA] years we’ve both had years where we moved a lot around, to meet some people, to see some stuff. But now we’ve wound up in this particular situation here where… people just came here. In an extreme quantity. I guess the joke is always like: I’ve never met so many people from so many different places in the world with so many different backgrounds, as when I moved to this tiny fjord in the east of Iceland! It’s very extreme. Also when you talk about keeping on doing what you’re doing — I can imagine many different situations where it would be interesting to do what you’re doing in another... For example now, this project has involved a plethora of people, but what if you, for example, had to do something where there were not really any people. I can imagine many interesting, I guess, contexts, to act in or be exposed in. That’s something I’m thinking about about also which conditions would be interesting to be exposed in. And to expose in. Imagine if you worked with animals, or plants, or... how that would sort of shape your attention to the thing. What’s in your system. And what scales would that bring in? C: I was just thinking before about how the mountains — at the risk of sounding too romantic — the mountains also have their own scale. Imagine what they think about our scale, how they experience our scale compared to their scale. And vice versa. You know, they’re a helpful presence in this context because they introduce another time scale . These mountains, these waterfalls, have been rushing for I don’t know how long — so far beyond these three months. L: Yeah, it’s a wild mirror. I think that’s something that has coherence with everyone who ever comes here. They are all exposed to this bending of a mirror. Because I guess these things are always present, there’s always geological conditions that have been there, and have developed in geological time, but you forget about it. We forget about it all the time. And we forget about the people thing all the time. And the architecture, and all these structures, you forget it’s… not there in that sense. I think that is something also really special about being here.
J: I have an idea for the rest of this interview. But it’s more of a necessity. Because I have a Skype now. So I was thinking that maybe you can continue just with Lasse, and then we can meet up after lunch just with me to end off. S: Sure. That sounds nice. L: Do you have something you would like to say now, before you leave? Maybe a question — you could leave us with a question. Maybe something you think I should do better. J: [laughs] No actually I think you’ve been doing really well. L: Who are you Skyping with? J: I’m Skyping with Samina. L: Ok. Shout out to Samina. J: She has an apple plantation, is that what it’s called? In Pakistan. C: Orchard maybe? Apple orchard? J: Apple orchard, yeah yeah, that’s what it’s called. C: In Pakistan? J: Yeah in Pakistan! She inherited it from some family. But she lives in Copenhagen. Or Berlin. L: She’s there now? J: She’s in Berlin. I forgot the last Skype so now I have to go. S: Ok, thank you! L: Give her our best. C: We’ll talk to you later. §
L: I’m all alone now! S: All aloooone. Ok, I’ve got a question. You were just talking about how this project could exist in different conditions and in different circumstances, so my question is, what is your relationship to art and why was it that the school became focused on art as a tool rather than a school of something else. C: You mean why art and why not, like, a farm? S: Yeah, a farm, or anything really — but what is it that art can do that allows for these types of conversations and these experiences and connections… L: [pause] I know this is a question you have to be very careful with answering. But also that sort of means that you shouldn’t at all be careful. You should just say something. So... in a way, it’s not about art for me. But then it’s also all about art for me. There are all these conversations, thoughts and questions, and enthusiasms, that we sort of exist with — Jonatan and his way, me and my way, and us and our way. That’s definitely a foundation of the things we are doing. They have something to do with a lot of different categories of thinkings and aesthetics and feelings, and, you could say, academic thematics and experiences. One of the things that I always found working with something like art is that it’s useful. Or it’s more that it gives an opportunity to talk about all these things at the same time, or to transcend many of these subjects. Even transcending the concept of art as a theme or as a subject or as a heritage or as a historical bloodline. So I think it’s in the way it transcends, and has been transcending these things for a very long time. That’s also why I personally find it a really good route down history, because it’s always been something discussing rather than explaining what’s going on. At least the interesting parts of it. So I guess that’s one of the reasons why I think it is such a great field to work with. And then I think with the time that we’ve been here, something also happened from the beginning, and it’s happening more and more and more. It’s that every time we do the program I get more and more excited about working artistically with other people. I get more and more excited about — I guess it’s a banal thing, but it’s not fucking banal in reality — having an artistic relationship with people. Daring to play with this artistic freedom in your process and then opening up. When you open up process not necessarily as a means to make something, but as the condition of existing in a finite universe. And it has to be that broad because that’s how broad it is.
I’m talking about process both as a thing in itself but also as a response to everything else, that I grew up with at least. It feels like a response to the logics and the narratives and the patterns and the systems and the cultures and the social spheres and the sciences and the technologies that we grew up with. No matter where we’re coming from it seems like an attention on process is a really, almost, I’d dare to say, productive response. Or at least it’s productive in the sense that it generates a lot. It generates a lot of questions, and it transcends a lot of potential answers. I feel like that transcends the question, then, as well, the foundational question. Because you can work like this within any field of thinking, less or more efficiently. It’s a way of doing things that makes sense to me, and it got a lot of body while I worked with the school. I think I will always be searching for how to investigate, how to open up, different situations. And I guess that’s one of the magic things about what happened here — that we made a place where this is the aim of being here. Normally this is a contradiction to the aim, or the core idea, of productivity. That’s why I think it’s a really good response. And I experience it as a response that resonates with a lot of people who are coming here, in their own ways, but especially the visiting artists. They’re already artists when they come here, but they are also searching for a place where they can exist to answer these questions — or try to engage with these questions. And sometimes it’s not like a question it’s more like a hunch, or a scepticism over answers. I think that’s as good a drive and motivation to try to engage with something as a question is. Like a bad answer. Or a good answer! At least those are some things that are in my mind here. As well as how we talked about scale before. Yeah I’m just wondering what would feel relevant to talk about if we moved, if this was in another scale or in another place, or… I’m… yeah I’m wondering. These scales are happening all the time. S: I’ve heard both you and Jonatan speak about your relationship to the school and the school itself being a praxis, but you also have your own individual art practice. I’m wanting to know more about that, and what you’ve been working on at the moment. L: I think maybe my individual art practice, that is what I was talking about. S: Oh! L: Because I would say the school is maybe more an art work, or it’s made as an artwork. For me at least there are particular reasons why it made sense to
define it as that. But of course it is a lot of other things too. And then my own art praxis, or my own shit that I’m doing, is um, that is more what I was meaning when I was talking about my reason for engaging with art — more than the school’s reason for engaging with art. Because that was not necessarily the idea with the school from the beginning. Or at least when I looked at the structure of the school that I stepped into, the core of the school was not to question. That is my core. I think the school was about some of the same things but also some other things. Maybe more personal things, like yeah, some of the things that Björt cared a lot about, cares a lot about. Also some of the things that Jonatan cares a lot about. Which, I also feel he has a different language for — that he will maybe explain later when he comes back — I don’t know if it’s necessarily philosophical, but at least I experience it more as a curiosity about comprehension. That I also share, but I have a different relationship to it. I think that’s one of the ways where we’ve become more and more interested in each others’ way of engaging with what we are doing. Besides being able to pull a lot of shit off together! And then with the school I have also my own, I guess, things… C: Agenda? L: Yeah, I have my own agenda! I have my own reactions, you could also say. I think it often feels like more reactions, but also an agenda, towards some of the things I do inside the school. Some of the more performative things. One thing is to talk about the school as a performance piece, or as an institution performing, which is — yeah that’s a long story about why any institution should think of themselves like this. But then I also have a huge affection for engaging with materials and objects. In a way doing what participants are doing at the school, trying to investigate some of these questions through doing physical things or making processes. Objects that sort of entertain, provoke, captivate, some of these thoughts. It seems like ideas come to mind all the time, when I make some things out in my little studio. I’m very interested in pink right now. For some reason. And then I’ve been very interested in time and materials for a very long time. How to preserve materials. In a way, somehow trying to experience the line between me having a synthetic process and then me having an organic process. By itself that seems to be something that keeps coming back in anything that I do. Even if it’s drying seaweed... I’m sure I’ll keep collecting seaweeds all my life, and I feel like when I talk to them I talk to something really crazy!
But again it’s also about scale, because essentially I just want to contribute to wherever I am. And sometimes that’s making work and sometimes it’s just like, cleaning. C: I remember in the beginning you said something that I feel has helped me work out how to act, or be, here as well, and just understand what it is to make something here, what this situation allows. You said that it was to do with — that there’s something unique about this situation, where actually people bring a lot of their attention to something. And it’s unique, that you are able to do something even very small and ask people to pay it some attention, and then we can have a conversation. It opens up a dialogue... or an exchange. You said you found that interesting or useful, and I like that. I’ve tried to take that into my experience as well. You have a group of people here who want to see what you do, who want to think about something. And you can really play with what that is. The humour in twenty people paying attention to something super banal for twenty minutes.. or whatever. L: Yeah, and it’s so crazy because, you know, I also said it — we are all spending time on these banalities — but I never believe it when I say it. I don’t think it’s banal at all. I know it’s banal, but I just don’t — it just isn’t! It just doesn’t feel banal. It’s fucking rough when you start to feel these things are banal. It happens to most people sometimes. But, that’s rough. This is also something that I think is just generally in my nature and my practice. It’s one thing to give attention to something, but attending to something is actually — I see it more as like a physical gesture, you know sort of how you maintain space, maintain development. Like, maintaining a structure so that something non-static can exist within it. Because something that is static deals with the same problems in the same way, over and over and over again. I have also experienced that removing, or withholding or maintaining something, can make other things dynamic. It’s maybe a static action, but it’s actually not static, because by maintaining it everything else becomes dynamic. Which is something I find very fascinating. C: By holding back a lot of the usual distractions, other stuff is set in motion? L: At least I’m experimenting with these types of actions when it comes to physical work. I think a good example would be me watering seaweed every Tuesday for two years. I watered it, and then it dried up, I watered it, then it dried up, and that’s a completely monotone action. But it made a possibility for something completely dynamic with the seaweed to happen. Or you move something around, every day… and it’s a little bit the same thing.
You can compare it to the attention that is given to the school. Some of the structures are the same, and some of the structures we change all the time because we get sick of them. Some of it is just the maintenance of things. Which is not in itself dynamic, but it allows for people to have an experience of something hyperdynamic. I’m very fascinated about that idea, because it seems to be something that particularly is not very thriving in the art world. Since I started having a lot of artists around me, I noticed the art world is maybe a little bit too much like the big corporations. They make all these things so people can have the feeling of being dynamic, but really they are super predictable. This seems to be something that is a big limitation working with artists, that’s actually how I often experience it. Maybe it’s because I’m also around students a lot, I experience it working in different ways. I think, yeah, at least it’s appealing to figure out what’s dynamic and what’s static. It’s really mind and nutcracking… C: We have eight minutes until lunch time. Or six minutes until lunchtime — two conflicting times here. So maybe some fun questions to end on… L: Ok. C: Ok short answers — Shan always asks this question, it’s funny, but I’m going to ask it this time: if you could sleep with anybody in the world, like famous or person from history, who would it be? L: Pamela Anderson. [laughter] C: You knew right away! You were like, “oh yeah I’ve thought about this.” L: I had the Barbwire poster over my bed when I was a kid, very young kid. C: Any advice for the LungAs once they leave? L: Uhhh… don’t trust anyone. Don’t trust the grown ups. C: What are your plans for your Australian Tour?!?!? L: My Australian Tour is my Australia plan. C: 2020. L: 2020!
C: Ok. What’s your signature dance move? L: Um. I’m just trying to change it as we speak. But I really have something going on with my arms where I’m like ‘chk, chk’ — I want to take up as much space as I can. But now I’m trying to move all this into a very subtle movement in my chest. C: Great! Ok lastly, as it’s the day of gratitude — what are you grateful for? L: My mum. S: Awwww mamma. L: She had her birthday yesterday. C: Happy birthday mamma Høgenhof! S: Ok, now we’ll play a game where we just say a word and you have to say the first thing that comes to mind. L: Ok. S: Dancing L: Rina C: Hey Rina! S: Hi Rina! Ok: Butternut pecan icecream L: Pistachio. S: Ok. Apples L: Bananas. S: Sleep paralysis L: Shan. S: Trigger point massage L: Shan.
S: Ghosts L: Umm.. Camila. C: What? L: Camila, it’s a name. C: Ahh ok. BOOMSCAP L: [laughing] BOOMSCAP. S: Anthropocene L: Bullshit. S: Jonatan L: Children! S: OOOOOOOOH!!! Nicey. Ok we have three minutes to walk in the snow to lunch. C: Thank you for this long interview! I look forward to transcribing every word. L: [laughs] Yeah please invent a program that can transcribe interviews. C: I think they exist but I don’t trust them. I’m a control freak, I’d rather do it myself! Also we had some listeners who came online at some point so shout out to them, hi wherever you are! S: And we’ll continue this interview with Jonatan after lunch, a little bit later. C: Thank you Lasse, thanks for your time and your hilarious answers to all of our questions. L: You’re welcome. I was actually in a very bad mood when I started this interview, but now I’m not. C: I guess the interview transcended the mood! §
C: Hello, here we are again. S: We’re back. We had a delicious lunch. J: Lentils with cheese. I think. S: Random things with cheese. Delicious. C: With cheese. Can’t go wrong! Did you have a good Skype? J: I did. Yeah. S: Learn about apple orchards? J: We didn’t talk too much about the apple orchards. We just talked about concussions. And about… magic. S: What is with concussion these days? J: I know, more and more! A good friend of mine had a concussion. And a student last Fall got a concussion while being here. Like it’s just being recognised now how much of an impact it is to your life to have a concussion. Out of the game for years potentially. It’s crazy! C: Have you ever had a concussion? J: Just a small one I think. I don’t know, maybe I’m still… C: Maybe you’re still concussed! S: I’ve had four concussions! J: Four?! But it seems like you know when you do. It’s hardcore. Anyway. How was your talk with Lasse? S: Lovely. C: He didn’t tell us any of your secrets though. J: None? S: Oh no, he told us three of the really big ones so I think you have to knee him back, and tell us four of his!
J: But I’m the worst with secrets, in that I don’t know what’s going on! No-one tells me. S: Kind of like how you didn’t know what was going on in that Werewolf game yesterday, hey?! Mr Cheeky Werewolf. You know as soon as I opened my eyes I was like, “I have a feeling… I reckon Jonatan might be The Werewolf” and then you were like, “no this is my first game, I don’t know what I’m doing!” J: Yeah. I can of course now reveal that I’ve played werewolf before! C: What, you have?! J: Yeah... C: Jonatan! I really trusted you, I thought you were very sincere! S: You have such kind eyes! J: One thing is lying in the game. But if you lie about the premise for your participation in the game then you can really confuse people I think. It’s one thing if I had been lying about who was I was in the game, but lying about having not played the game, people — they assume… C: I think Gabrielle also tapped into that a little bit. When she said she couldn’t understand the card! J: Totally! But that became very clear that that was a lie. S: Oh really? J: Yeah, she knew what she was. S: I even whispered to her what she was. C: But wait what was she? S: She was a Townsperson. J: Yeah. So I’m pretty sure she knew. S: That’s very smart, wow! I like that. Anyway enough about Werewolf. C: Ok I have a question to get us started. I heard a lot from the students about the lectures you gave this week, and I’m curious about your interests
in terms of what you bring into the school — what’s your little flavour to the school, your subject matter… I guess because we were talking to Lasse about, well I used the word ‘agenda’ but he also talked about ‘reactions’. J: Like his reactions? C: Yeah. In terms of his own individual practice. J: I don’t know. What do you think I bring? C: Well, I just go back to your morning inspiration when we watched the video about the seagull with the baguette that saved… J: The bird that dropped the baguette in the superconductor supercollider? C: Exactly! I think you’re quite interested in these existential questions that relate more to physics. These real world sort of scientific dilemmas, I guess, that we encounter. J: Ah shit I don’t even know where to begin. In a way what I bring to the school is just everything that I’m interested in. It’s also just as much… what’s it called… a dedication to being here. When we invite someone to come and take part in all this it’s important that I’m clear early on, to myself and to any visitor, that I’m completely dedicated to be here — to take part and attempt to figure out what it means to contribute for me — and to learn which are the most interesting ways to be together... in those twelve weeks. That in itself ties into a bigger interest of how in general to take part and contribute and make your existence as, I guess, interesting and worthwhile as it can be, in whatever that means for anyone at a particular point. That’s also part of the questioning and where the stuff we did in the previous weeks — all the conversations that happened — really ties into this. Quite fundamentally, it’s a question of how to make one’s existence as interesting and worthwhile as it can be. This raises a lot about the assumptions in that question. I guess assumptions about what anything is — from what is existence; to what do you exist in; what does it mean; what is interesting; what does it mean if something is worthwhile? All this ties in to the context in which you exist of course. And it ties in to the way you understand that context. From there you can have endless conversations about ontology and epistemology; about existential concerns and about what’s real and what’s not real; about politics and about structure; about infrastructure. About all things. And I’m interested in all of it.
But I’m interested in also, you could say, tying it all together. I think that’s also one of the things I bring — that I’m maybe always attempting to make threads between all the different conversations. Sort of zooming in and out all the time. So from having a conversation about, for example the conversation they were having, all the students yesterday, about getting to Reykjavik — with all the cars. I really enjoyed listening to that. C: Yeah I know I was looking at you and thinking, “I bet Jonatan’s loving this.” J: All because I’ve found myself in a number of those kind of conversations! But like, taking that conversation and then also tying that into all sorts of conversations about organisation, about fairness, about money about blah blah blah blah blah. In that way, anything holds endless potential for digging into. I really enjoy that. And I think this is a context for digging — in many ways also, as a source thing for me, that’s very much what it’s about. It’s about digging. But also then maybe building, in surprising ways.You have to place the dirt somewhere when you start digging, and then see what comes out of, not necessarily just the hole you dig, but then also all the stuff that came up — all the land, what happens to it? S: Have you always been a digger, or was there something that shifted you? Was there something that brought this interest? J: I don’t remember a particular thing, but I also haven’t had this interest and these questions particularly present or alive with me always. It’s not something I remember. I don’t know when it became a thing. Probably when I started existing less out of necessity maybe. Or it came out of growing up, or something. Being less interested in myself and more interested in everything else. That has changed a lot, but I don’t tie it to any particular thing. I guess, it’s just different things that I’ve been interested in. I really enjoy trying to understand things. But I think the difference is that I thought it was possible. And now I think it’s less possible. C: To understand things? J: Yeah. C: That was going to be my next question — do you think you understand things? J: No. But it’s not a yes or no thing. S: But your relationship to not knowing is different? Are you more ok with not knowing now?
J: Yeah but this has always been pretty fine. It’s just maybe that at some point I have come to get in a more complete sense, or in an ultimate sense, that I don’t really have the same relationship to it anymore. I don’t think it’s even, what do you call it, an intelligible thing to be thinking into. And I’m not sure it’s particularly desirable to think into it either. I think now I see the strength of constantly doubting. I think my presence now is more rooted in doubt than it is in a drive for certainty. C: I was thinking when you were talking before — I remember I asked you once whether this whole project was kind of an experiment using people — restructuring them — and seeing what happens. Sometimes, this is how it seemed. And I think you said — correct me if I’m saying it wrong — you said, “yeah but, isn’t that just how everything is, actually, it’s just that we’ve accepted the existing structures.” Still they are constructions, only they’ve been devised by someone else. I think this is so interesting, the experience of this school as a constructed situation. J: Yeah. I think the answer that I gave was: if an experiment becomes big enough it suddenly stops being an experiment, because it’s just the way it is. And that means all these small things — I guess going back to the bird and the baguette — they are suddenly forgotten in that process of experiments becoming really big and overtaking our ideas of how things are. I think there are a lot of small coincidences, like birds, and baguettes being dropped into different things, and then suddenly here we are in 2018. Like, the history of how we got here is quite non-linear, and full of weird stuff. I like to think about it in that way, which also confuses the idea of where are we going and what is an experiment and what’s not. In that way it’s also not an experiment — it’s just maybe an attempt to see if something can live in the work. The language around experiments is also... C: It kind of suggests an evolution from one thing into the next... J: Yeah, it’s not so distinct. With regard to the school, it’s not separated from all sorts of other things. It just also exists. And has impact on everyone who takes part. Just as the other stuff has impact, all the time, on everyone. But I mean, I just find the other thing maybe to be a bit more violent. And I’m interested in trying to see if something can live that isn’t, in many ways. C: Do you think that with the LungA project there will come a time in the future where it too becomes kind of more, well, more violent. Or more like the other bigger stuff? Or is there a way to sustain that experimental phase? J: I don’t know. I think if we feel like it does become that, then we should kill
it. But one way of sustaining some of the elements that I find interesting and generative, both for the conversations and the nuances and the doubt and all these things, is something to do with scale. In that our context is fairly small, but also the project itself is fairly small with not a lot of people. Like we’re twenty people. That’s a good size in order to be forced to deal with the consequences of your actions and other people’s actions. Everyone has to deal with each others’ shit. All the time. I like that a lot. There’s no way of hiding — that’s the premise; that’s just how it is. I think maybe in the other way often you have a chance to not deal with the consequences of your actions. And of course that’s also partly the case here, because many consequences exist in completely other places, like, geographic locations elsewhere. But many kinds of consequences that you’re not always confronted with exist here. C: Even the consequences of us being here and then leaving is a thing. J: And also with each other. Of course the consequences of meeting each other and developing the kinds of relationships and emotional ties to each other and then parting is something. But also just on a daily basis. Like, it becomes very clear that no one… if you don’t do anything, it’s either someone that you know who has to do it, or it’s not being done. Like it’s very simple. Nothing happens, in that way, by itself. Except entropy! Maybe. C: Yeah, we have to refer to Aoife and Victoria for a further conversation about entropy. Ok, well then I’m just going to ask you some other questions quickly. Ok, if you… [laughs] I’m not sure I like asking this question, it’s normally Shan who asks this and I’m always like “I’m not sure if we should ask that,” but it’s good, it’s good, I like it… Lasse had a good answer. J: Pressure! C: Ok, if there was anyone in the world that you could sleep with, like from history or a famous person or something, who would it be? J: Umm. Maybe, what’s his name? I think it would be the guy who plays the Big Lebowski? It’s not Jack Goodman, Jack Goodman is his friend, but it’s the other one… He has such a great voice! S: John Bridges?! Yeah, he has such a good voice! C: The Dude! He’s The Dude. Ok, yeah. Sounds fun! J: I think that’d be cosy. S: Jeff Bridges! Yeah he is, he does have something about him.
C: He’s got a good smile. J: He’s a handsome fella. C: Good answer! Umm.. ok what’s the first thing you’re going to do once all the LungAs leave. Ok, well besides leaving town yourself… J: So do you mean while I’m still in town? C: Well, I don’t know, I mean do you have a little ritual for after everybody goes? Are you just like, “thank God! It’s over!” J: Not so much, actually. I think that this, after this, after the Fall program we usually have a Christmas lunch. Just Lasse and me. So we might do that. Otherwise… [Nanna arrives in the radio tower] S: Welcome! Nanna: I have a seed in my system somewhere! J: Otherwise when getting to Copenhagen it’s going to go have a falafel. C: Oh, yeah. Just going to eat something different for a change! J: Other than that’s it’s just being completely excited about letting go. Like the biggest thing is the responsibility, letting go of it is such a… I feel… C: You can just be responsible for yourself again! J: Yeah, and decide not to! And just feel weightless. It’s great. So this week is for me at least it’s very “whew!” Yeah, I get lighter and lighter. C: Yeah, I feel like that, because I gave away a few of my swimming passes, just now. They were feeling like a burden, I was like, “I’ve got to use these and my days are running out!” And I gave two of them away just now and feel like, ok that’s good, a bit more free… Ok, because this is our day of gratitude, what are you grateful for? J: For you two. C: Aw.
J: Yeah, not the band, but the two of you. And not YouTube either. I guess I’m grateful for YouTube as well, but mostly for the two of you. C: When will we see you again? J: Twenty twenty! S: Yeah twenty twenty! Correct answer! C: That was a trick question. Do you have any advice for the LungAs who are about to leave? J: None. C: None! J: Zero advice. C: And uh, what’s your karaoke song? J: I have more than one! C: Tell me them all! J: Ok. I think of course Chiquitita is in the top five. C: ABBA! J: And then I think the song with Fiction Factory. It’s called, can you Google ‘Fiction Factory’? S: Feels Like Heaven? J: Yeah, Feels Like Heaven. And then, a few Talking Heads songs. Most of them. Like the whole, yeah — all Talking Heads songs. C: They are fun karaoke songs! J: Yeah. Also just to… you get a chance to imagine you’re David Byrne. C: Well I hope I get to witness one of these on our road trip! J: Yeah. Ohhh. We can do!
S: I wanted to finish up with a game where we say a word and then you say the first thing that comes to your head. So we have, first one: interstellar travel — J: Time. S: Aliens J: Green. S: God J: Green? S: Sandra Bullock J: Speed. S: Chips J: Crush. S: Snakes J: Charming. S: Dinner parties J: Warm. S: Karaoke J: Byrne. S: Big toe J: Hole in my shoe! [laughter] S: The collapse J: Hole in my shoe! S: Hahaha. Lasse
J: [laughs] The stone in my shoe. S: Nanna J: Love. Because she’s here. C: How do you say “we love you Nanna” in Danish? We’ve learnt it so many times but I always forget. J: That’s very easy, “jeg elsker dig” S: Jeg elsker dig, Nanna. Jeg elsker dig, Jonatan. Jeg elsker dig, Clairkey. J: Haha. S: Beautiful! Thank you so much, that was beautiful. And as it’s our day of gratitude, thank you so much for having us. Claire and I, it’s been such a pleasure, really joyous and yeah, no comment, no words. J: No words, thank you.
Nanna Vibe Spejborg Juelsbo As interviewed on Seydisfjรถrรฐur Community Radio 107.1fm Friday 13th December 2018
C: Hi Nanna! Welcome to our radio show! S: Hi Nanny! N: Hi Shanyyyy! C: So we’re sitting here with Nanna Vibe Spejborg Juelsbo. Who has a very special relationship to LungA! N: [giggles] C: A very special relationship! And also is the librarian of the town. N: Oh yes. S: And she ran a workshop during our time here at LungA, which was sort of two workshops — one with locals and one with LungA students. It was a creative writing poetry workshop. N: Mmm. C: Did you like how I called it ‘extra-curricular’ in the zine? N: Yeah I loved it. C: I thought that made sense. N: Yeah I think in general I feel ‘extra-curricular’ to this school, so I thought it was very fitting. C: It was so nice, that workshop, I felt like it was a little secret that the writing participants had. And then to show our work to the rest of the group was so fun. Everyone else was just kind of like, “woah! You guys have been doing all this other stuff on the side!” It fed in nicely to some of the other things that people were doing. N: Yeah. Great. I’m glad to hear. S: Would you like to tell us a little bit more about the writing workshops? N: Of course. I wanted to do this workshop because normally at LungA there is a week where a girl called Minerva [Pietilä] comes in to teach a creative writing workshop. But because Minerva just started school somewhere else she couldn’t be here. I think also because the boys were up for shifting the whole
thing this year, the structure of all the weeks as well, so it happened that there were no writing workshops for this group of people. And I just thought that was such a shame. Because having been here for some of the other weeks where the students were performing writings after the writing workshop was so beautiful to experience. Being a writer myself I just thought that was a really important part that was missing in the whole curriculum for the semester. So I asked Jonatan and Lasse — or I suggested — that I could do this off-curriculum writing workshop for three Mondays in a row in the middle of the program. Luckily the students were up for it, and some of you guys as well, and even some of the workshop leaders that came and visited us. So it was a really nice little thing, a little Monday night thing. We met in the library on Monday nights for one and a half hours. Beforehand I would think about a few things that might be interesting to work with, but every night that would change. Because somebody else came with something, or I got an idea while we were sitting there. So it was a very beautiful living thing. Or at least it felt like that to me. It was quite beautiful to see the students express themselves in words as well, and perform their texts in so many different ways. C: And languages as well! N: And languages, yeah. At the workshop it was open for people to write in English or their mother tongue. And it was a really nice mix of different mother tongues! Yeah, so we had French and Dutch and Danish… C: And Icelandic… did we have Icelandic? N: Yeah, Villi. Yes, that was beautiful. S: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing practice? What kind of work you make? N: Right now, I’m working on two different projects. One is a collection of poems, and the other is a set of texts that I think will be a longer format, maybe a novella, or maybe a book one day. When I’m not working on one of them I’m working on the other. And that just, really, I just figured out quite early that that works quite well for me, to have several projects going on. There’s something inside of me that has a hard time working on one thing only. I need change. So one day I’ll be writing some text, or working on some text, and then the next da,y or maybe in the same day, I’ll switch over and write something else. They’re different genres, so the text work is very different between the two of them. When I’m working on one project I’m sort of off from the other one, and vice versa. And that gives me a lot of energy to then go back to the other one again and continue working on that.
I have a rule that I write every day. In order just to start — because I’m writing a lot on my own, so I usually sit either at home or in the office in the evenings, here in the LungA School, — so a way to get me into that state of being where I can write I usually spend just maybe ten or fifteen minutes on writing a text that is like the text of the day. There are no rules for that text, it’s just like a flow writing empty-your-brain text. I never really know what will come up. But it’s really nice, because I always save these texts in a document and then put the name and the date for them. And then I just have one for every day. S: For how many years? N: Oh, not that long. It’s been like on and off in periods as well. But right now I’m in a period where I’m writing every day. C: Do you read it back ever? Or is it not really that kind of thing? N: Yeah, yeah. I actually do that quite often. Because sometimes something comes up, especially when I’m thinking. You know, because I am of course thinking about the two projects that I’m working on while I’m trying to write these texts as well. So usually something will come up that I can directly transfer to one of the two projects. So that works really nice as well. It’s sort of a way to get away from the texts, but also still feed back into them afterwards. C: I’ve actually been trying to do a similar exercise since I’ve been here. Every morning writing three pages. There are days that I don’t manage to do it. But then I kind of noticed that I’d start to miss it a little bit, or I don’t trust myself as much to make good decisions, creatively, if I haven’t done my morning pages. Because I feel like there’s too much other stuff in my head, and it’s like, I don’t know, a kind of cleaning out. So if I’ve done that then I feel like I trust my decisions a bit more. They’re a bit more sincere or something, because they’re not trying to bring in this agenda of my subconscious. Or perhaps it’s exactly the other way around. N: Yeah, that totally resonates with me. It’s very much a feeling that there is a lot of stuff in there. As you just said! C: Yeah, it’s collecting all the time! N: In your brain... So for me as well it’s like a cleansing. Or it’s where I can get my mind straight and think more clearly. Or at least that’s the feeling. Because I’ve just been taking away all the other stuff, putting it down, so it’s not gone — it’s not lost — it’s just somewhere else. I’ve parked it there, and then I can focus. Then I can look on whatever I’m sitting with and be like, “ok this is it.”
C: That’s cool! N: Oh, I actually brought something! S: OOOOOOHHHHHHH! C: Oh you did? N: Mm hm. I almost forgot. But I brought something that we should all wear! S: Oh! Oooooooohhhhh! C: It’s an oil? Is it an oil? N: Yeah, it’s an essential fragrance. But it’s the perfume that I use. And you should do just a little drop. S: I said to Nanna that she always smells so beautiful. And I wanted to get a beautiful oil, like... oh my gosh, Aoife, I’m doing the action for the perfume bottle! We talked about it last night! Ready? I’m doing it right now! — BOOM — I just did it now. Tap, tap, tap. N: Tap, tap, tap. S: Tap, tap, tap. Wow! Thank you Nanna! I thought you were going to say you brought a little text. N: Or something edible? [laughs] I should’ve brought something edible. C: Ooh, it’s so nice though. S: It’s gorgeous. I love how it’s just called ‘Men’ N: Yeah! S: I’m wearing Men today. N: I didn’t bring anything edible though. C: Just to reel it back in, while we’re smelling like men… N: Like a bunch of men! C: I want to know how you’ve experienced LungA from your position — as a
satellite… a lovely satellite, to the school. What you’ve observed, or how the LungA experience has evolved for you? N: How do you say this in words? Hmm. I just always enjoy being around these people. And it’s funny that you know, that now that we’re sitting here and it’s almost over, and you can call them like the LungA People, and it feels like A People — it’s like a group of people — and before they came here they weren’t LungA People, but in some way they are now. I don’t know what happens. But it feels like something happened with each — both with each one of them, but also collectively — now they are this mass of people that were here in this specific time and place. And as all the groups are beautiful in each their way, this one was too. For this was a very… this one felt like a very gentle group. I’m already talking about it as if it’s over. Sorry. It’s not over! Yeah but I have this very gentle feeling both towards them but also a feeling like that’s what they gave me. Like they, they met me with a gentle energy. Yah. And then they just completely surprised me with their, with the last, the final exhibition. With the whole thing. I’m still ah… as you can see, I’m still just like wide big eyes looking into the sky because I… I don’t know that was just one of the most beautiful things. C: You were a driver, right? S: You were a part of it… N: I was a driver. I was a part of it. Yeah. But again, interesting. And also very clever. I was a part of it, but I wasn’t really a part of it, but I was a part of it. You know — I was talking to Victoria yesterday about how I thought it was genius, these different levels of knowledge that the people who participated had. Because in a way everybody participated in this thing. But there were so many different levels of knowledge in it and also different levels of participation that I just really enjoyed. I thought it was very beautiful, interwoven into this whole big… logistic… nightmare! That worked out to be so perfect. Such a — yeah — beautiful thing. Both for themselves, and for us, who were somehow a part of it. But also just for the town, for people in the town. S: What projects do you have coming up, or what would you like to work on next besides the two pieces that you are working on. What does your future look like? N: So what do I want to do when I grow old? S: Yeah, that’s a nice question!
N: Um. When I grow a little bit older, I would like to have a garden. I would like to have a garden with a lot of vegetables. And to be able to grow my own food. Mm. But that’s in the future at some point. Right now? Well I will be working soon with List í Ljósi, the light festival happening in February. C: What are you doing for that? N: Well I would love to invite some writers to come here and participate in the festival. And then usually I run the radio as well during the festival. This year I would love to use the radio as a platform for readings. To use the studio as a stage, but also to use sound in the festival. Because there’s not really a lot of sound works incorporated in the festival. So I can temper it with sound pieces. And I’ll be hosting some of the artists down in Heima as well, that are coming for the light festival, doing small interviews; filmed interviews with them. Both as a sort of warm up for the festival but also during the festival for people in this town and outside the town to get to know the artists a little bit better. There’s a lot of things to do here, as always! S: You’ve been coming to Seyðisfjörður for quite a few years, but you’ve spent time here permanently now for the past how many months? N: So I’ve been here a year. Yeah, I moved in August last year. So a little more than a year. But before then I was back and forth for five years. S: So you’ve developed an intimate relationship with the town? N: Mm. Very much. S: Do you have a favourite part of the town that you walk to or something? N: Yes. Yes yes yes. C: Is it a secret? N: No! No, everybody can have it! It’s a big place! It’s behind the hostel where you guys are staying, if you sort of walk up to where the river is and the waterfall. And you follow this path and you follow it to the right, and then at some point just walk away from that path and go up. S: Yep! Yep, yep yep. N: And go up the hill, and there are these beautiful mossy… S: Moss! Yep!!! I love that spot!!!
N: [laughing] Mossy hills! With small pine trees! S: Yep, it’s like this, uhhhhh… N: Yeah, exactly. S: That’s where the blueberries are, that’s where we went, Claire! N: Yeah, there’s so many blueberries. And so few people. And it’s, especially in summertime, I go up there and take off all my clothes. And I’m just, you know you can just be alone. Even though you’re sitting there and you can look down on like the life in the town. But you can also just look at the mountains or the fjord, or… yeah. Just be. Just be. C: It’s just so amazing to be able to have access to that so freely. I think that’s the big thing that I’m going to miss. The mountains give you an interesting perspective of being removed, while having an overview of things. And feeling so small, all of a sudden. Then you’re able to go back into town, and you can look up and see where you were. N: Exactly! C: There are these two sides of an experience that you can oscillate between. N: And have a little conversation with the mountains while you’re up there. It’s really nice. S: I went to visit Nanna yesterday at the library, and I said to her she was the sassiest looking librarian I’ve ever seen. I’m conscious of the time for Nanna because I know she has to be there very soon. C: Ok, but I have one question on that note! Because you are the sassiest librarian I’ve ever seen too. And you’re also one of the most stylish people in town! Do you have any style advice for our listeners out there?! N: [clears throat] Yes! C: She does, I knew she would! N: Yeah. Because there’s two things that, if you live in Seyðisfjörður, you just have to have. S: Uh huh.
N: In order to be both stylish and practical. C: Ok. N: Practical first: you need woollen underwear. That’s rule number one. First layer — woollen underwear. S: Ahh. Ok. N: And then, and then I learnt this from a very good friend I have in the fjord. This is a stylish thing, and I’m actually doing it today, I’m wearing it today. C: Yeeeahhh! N: It’s to wear jeans, or trousers, or pants, or whatever. And then wear something a little bit long over these. Or like, what do you call it, above these. Like as a shirt. It’s not a dress but it’s a little bit like a dress. But it’s just something a little bit long. So you’re a little bit practical, but feminine. So [standing up] just like this. C: Just like this! S: Very cute. C: Is it a top? N: It’s a… I don’t know. C: It’s a tunic. Like a long top. N: This is — and that’s maybe a third tip to add — this is my mum’s. And I think it’s, well she’s very old... so this shirt, tunic, whatever it is, is probably like thirty or forty years old. And that’s my third tip is just — use your mamma’s clothes. Yeah: go to your mamma. Find your mamma. And take her clothes. S: Yes. I like that! I’ve made a little list for you, like we did for the other guys, where we say a word — you know how it goes... N: [breathes] S: Ok, ready! N: Oi… yep.
S: Here we go: pimple popping videos N: Eyebrows. S: Candy N: Yellow. S: Goldie Hawn N: Milk. S: Johnny Depp N: Oooh. Yes! S: Dancing N: Mondays! S: Language N: So good. S: Senses N: All of them. S: Astrology N: Mountains. S: Pen or pencil N: Always. S: Jonatan N: [giggles] Just everything. S: Awwwww. Beautiful. Oh! And what about the celebrity question? C: Oh ok, yep. If you could sleep with anyone in the world throughout history or a celebrity or a character‌
S: Cartoon character as well! Genie from Aladdin, I tell you! That little tail gets me going! [laughter] N: That’s actually not a tricky question for me at all. That would be Johnny Cash in his younger days. That’s clear. Or maybe just Johnny Cash of all times, whatever age. Not dead, though, no. C: He kind of has a baby face at the same time as being a grown man! Well… yeah. He looks like a very wise baby. In the sexiest way possible. S: He was a very wise looking baby! N: Ok, maybe not as a boy. C: Yeah that voice though is bone-shaking. N: Yeah, that voice. C: Ok, we’d better let you go to the library. Thankyou Nanna! I’m so glad that we could interview you. I’ve forgotten how to say the thing already! S: We looooyve you. N: “elsker dig” S: We elsker dig you Nanna! N: Ayyy! Thank you so much! C: Thank you Nanna. Have a great day at the library. S: I think you’re our official last interviewee. C: Yes, it’s true. N: Oh, wowwww. C: We’re closing the book now. N: Shit. Congratulations. C: Thanks Seyðisfjörður, for listening to us.