Sirra Sigrún Sigurðardóttir
Proposal- work in progress
Almannagjá (The-general-public-fissure)
NEXT - 2011 1/3
Work in progress - video showing me taking a trip down into the new cave/crevice that has just recently opened up in Almannagjá (The-general-public-fissure) at Þingvellir (Thingvellir). I have been working on getting a permission to go into the cave but that has proven to be more complicated then I anticipated, very heavy bureaucracy and red tape process because Þingvellir is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a National park.
Þingvellir have really sparked my interest in the last few months, both the historical and political references in the place itself as well as its geological uniqueness where new land is formed pushing the plates of Eurasian and North-America apart.
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is where the Althing (All-thing, thing meaning assembly) - an open-air assembly that represented the whole of Iceland - was established in 930 and continued to meet until 1798 (moved to Reykjavik). Alþingi is the oldest functional democratic parliament in the world. Over some weeks late summer every year, the assembly at Þingvellir set laws, as a covenant between free men, and settled disputes. Alþingi in the viking era was special in some ways that I like to link to developments in the world to day (f.ex. The Arab spring and Occupy movement). Firstly Alþingi had a truly democratic function were everybody had equal rights to participate, rich and poor, men and women. Everybody who could show up at the meeting had rights to take part in the law making and the justice system, and you could also send a representative in your stead. Other thing that fascinated me is that it was an open air assembly, everybody camping out in tents for weeks (linked in my mind to Occupy Wall street).
Geologically the site is unique, nowhere else in the world is it possible to see a rift valley showing the continental plates drifting apart as clearly as at Þingvellir. It is this forming of new land, new space, new possibilities, even new ideologies that fascinates me, I see the cave as symbolizing this “new”, it is a space between; east-west, left-right, Europe-America, Capitalism-Communism and so on. So going into the cave/crack is a gesture and an exploration, a trip in search for this “new”. Still as of now it is just a start, a rift in the fabric, a way in, I don't expect to find new worlds down the like Professor Von Hardwigg in the Journey to the Center of the Earth, but who knows, it is a start.
Here are some photos of the new opening, the cave I want to go down into...
This photo is from a newspaper showing the new “hole” found at the site.
Translation – A great hole has just opened up in Almannagjá (general-public-fissure). Underneath there is a cave who has proved to reach under where the digger is placed in this photograph.
Here you can see the entrance to the cave.
An illustration showing how Alþingi could have looked like around the year 1000.
This phot shows the cornerstones of the Alþingi (The parliament) building in Reykjavik (build 1874). What fascinates me is the fact that erosion is causing the stones to slowly disappear but the stone-glue between the rocks is much stronger. The erosion has been speeded up really fast due to the public/protesters throwing eggs, paint and other stuff onto the building, so it has had to be cleaned with high pressure water spray many times in the last few years. What is the glue and what are the rocks, imagine the thing, the sculpture standing there if all the rock material will disappear, just a huge 3D grid space drawing of the house.
This is the Alþingi/Parliament as it stands today, it is just over hundred years old, so if the erosion goes on at this speed the house will disappear in less then 1000 years... See on my photo how the glue is already about 1 cm outer than the stones.
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