Here and Now is my second video that is part of Retreating series, a multimedia project I started working on during my SÍM Artist Residency in Reykjavík.

Images used to create the video were collected around the volcanic site: Fagradalsfjall volcano (around three miles from the Blue Lagoon). Fagradalsfjall volcano started erupting on March 19, 2021 and erupted for six months. Consequently, the new lava fields and craters have been created by the eruption and in that new landscape.

In a close proximity to the lava formations, resilient mountain avens, a white Arctic-alpine flowering plant, (Icelandic: Holtasóley) grow. In 2004, Holtasóley was voted the National Flower of Iceland by the public. The plant is also known for its herbal qualities and is used to reduce inflammation as well as a substitute for tobacco and tea. The sound of wind was recorded at the site of Fagradalsfjall volcano on June 15, 2022.

Poem: Til Descartesar (To Descartes) by Steinunn Sigurðardóttir

read by Hrafnkell Birgisson

To Descartes

(translated by Sigurður A. Magnússon)

1

Here and now

do not matter.

There and then

do not matter.

But here I am

and I can't help it.

2

The past ran away

and it couldn't be helped.

The future is going the same way.

And the present is blue

as what never will be.

3

My struggle

is a struggle for nothing

and my life flows in a circle

like the whirl in the river

like a merry-go-round

from which I'll be snatched

one afternoon in August

just like that.

4

We who seek the truth

seek in vain.

For every matter

has a thousand and four sides

and each of them has another thousand and four

which all multiply

in a thousand and four ways.

And we who seek the truth

are the next way.

5

Let's face

what never will be.

Let's stick to facts

and face

the seven dwarfs

after a long journey

over the seven mountains

over what never was

over what never will be.

Let's then face each other

and stick to facts.