Description
Maribel Longueira is a Spanish photographer who will work together with the Spanish writer Francisco X. Fernández and the Icelandic-Spanish poet Elias Knörr in the project. They will travel to Iceland and The Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri will be the Icelandic partner. The project will focus on the common ground Galicia in the North of Spain have with Iceland because of the ocean that unites them. The waves leave lost properties, wrecks, trash and natural and human waste that shape the environment and landscape of the costs of the two counties. In the past, these materials came from shipwreck or timber from forest. Today, the most common is to find plastic and pollutants. The materials brought and carried by the sea always have a special value for the people living at the coast. The project will investigate the changes of this phenomenon. The result of the project will be: - a photo exhibition with portraits and images that represent aggression and destruction of nature. - a lecture by Fernández entitled “Cultural and economic value of the waste of the sea”. The lecture will be accompanied by projection of photographs by Longueira. - a video - a poetry reading by Knörr.
Summary of project results
Spanish photographer Maribel Longueira worked together with Spanish writer Francisco Fernández on the Spanish-Icelandic project “People in the middle”. The project was implemented in Iceland in cooperation with the Stefansson Artic Institute. The artists represent a cross-disciplinary dialogue between photography, poetry and anthropology with the ocean as reference. In the past, materials brought to shore by the ocean consisted of shipwreck traces or timber from forests. Today, you find plastic and pollutants. The materials brought by the sea have always had a special value for the people living on the coast. The project has investigated the changes of this phenomenon and convey a clear message surrounding the marine environment, pollution and mankind’s responsibility to take action. The exhibition, with photos and readings, was divided into two parts and shown in Reykjavik at the University of Iceland from 2 May - 31 July 2014 and at the University of Akureyri from 8 May - 20 June 2014. The project has reinforced the relationship between Galicia in northern Spain and Iceland, two communities that are geographically separated, but that are united by the ocean.
Summary of bilateral results