New Spring

New Spring is a multidisciplinary project being developed in Montreal and Iceland. Come follow our work as we go to a residency in the West Fjords in May 2017.

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2:30AM cutie alert (at Ísafjörður)

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Behind the scenes// Progress shot in the studio taken from Catherine Legault’s documentary filming of us, in residence at ArtsIceland.

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We went to the Dynjandi Waterfall and did a video shoot.

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Last week, one of our first excursions was to the hot pot at Hvalfjordur. The hot pot’s plumbing wasn’t working and the tub was ice cold but it was such a spectacular view that it didn’t matter. We were also fascinated by the grave yard on an island out in the water.

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Zuzu and Frank go through a tunnel

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Hello Iceland, here we are.

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“The Elf Queen rode by and we locked eyes. Does it mean love or does it mean death?”

Heinrich Heine

Translated from the Icelandic singing of our Great Grandmother Ingibjorg Gudmundsdottir (1891-1994).

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Our project New Spring evolved from the work of Jasa, Frances, Tyr, Justin, Debora and Catherine who began the initial research for this project in Fall 2015 with the support of a CAC research-creation Interarts grant. We used this funded research period principally to collect, translate and digitize our family archives, with a concerted focus on the life of Jasa and Tyr’s great grandmother, Ingibjorg Gudmundsdottir (also known as Lang Amma). These archives include 8mm film, Super 8 film, VHS, antique photographs, handwritten letters and audio tapes in Icelandic. All resources have been digitized and translated. A channeling session was held and documented with a psychic-medium to talk to Ingibjorg and to affirm that our explorations into her past were appreciated and profound. Animation experiments were created mixing archives and original drawings and sound. Since we have spent the time to understand the significance of these materials, as well as integrating them into our own art practices, they have become the base material for New Spring, as well as Catherine’s documentary about the family and it’s heritage. We discovered the title of this project  “New Spring” when first reading through the newly translated recordings of Ingibjorg; one song in particular stood out that we had accidentally taped over 20 years ago as children. The only part of this song that was preserved was a haunting description of the Elf Queen. “The Elf Queen rode by and we locked eyes. Does it mean love or does it mean death?” Our further research revealed that this text came from a collection of Heinrich Heine’s poems titled “New Spring”.  Heine (1797 – 1856) was a Jewish German poet, the lyrics of many popular Icelandic songs are attributed to him, including  Álfareiðin (Elf Ride), and Ný Vor (New Spring).