Doină went to a far corner of Iceland in Feb 2016. The far corner is a small western town of the island called Þingeyri in Westfjords region. The population here is about 280 people. There is a pool, a school, a fishing industry, a gas station (which also sells food, post stamps etc.), a cafe (open in summer), an artistic residency, a culture house with a tuned piano, some abandoned houses,  some houses people are living in, a viking center, a church and a cemetery. There is a facility for fish drying and a bunch of Icelandic horses on the other side of the mountain. It had been snowing heavily some days before my arrival, so on some spots at the side of the road the snow was as high as my shoulder, and on some other, it was only up or over my knee.

The performance consisted of me cutting the fish (donated kindly by the local fishermen) open; taking out its insides and putting them into the glass filled with the burning liquid; painting my face with the blood and the guts from the fish; cutting myself and painting the fish with my blood; putting the soil (brought from my homeland Lithuania) with the tiny sprouts of plants instead of the interiors of the fish; filling the glass with snow, firing up the burning liquid with the fish guts and melting the snow over it; watering the soil; marrying the remains of soiled snow with the guts of fire.

All pictures from the action kindly taken and shared by Davið Davíðsson.

The performance took place in the context of the residency program “Questioning Arts”, led by Utena Art Center with the collaboration with Westfjords residency, funded by the Nordic EEE grants scheme and Lithuanian Culture Council.