23 and 24. Twenty third and twenty fourth residents, for five weeks, from the 1st of May until the 6th of June 2016 : Þór Whitehead and Gerður Guðmundsdóttir
Þór Whitehead is an Icelandic historian and Professor Emeritus at the Department of History and Philosophy at the University of Iceland, Reykjavík.
Þór Whitehead has written extensively on the foreign relations of Iceland and the country´s military importance
during the Second World War and the Cold War as well as on the history of the Icelandic Communist movement (Kommúnistahreyfingin á Íslandi 1921-1934 - The Communist Movement in Iceland, 1921–1934).
His best known work is the multi-volume series: Ísland í síðari heimsstyrjöld (Iceland in the Second World War).
He has also written about controversial aspects of Icelandic history such as the racial policies of the Icelandic government towards Jewish immigration 1933-1939,
government opposition to the stationing of African-American troops in Iceland 1941-1972
and the extensive police surveillance of Icelandic women suspected of fraternising with allied troops during the Second World War.
Þór Whitehead was journalist and editorial writer for Morgunblaðið, a daily newspaper in Reykjavík between 1967-1969,
a research lecturer at the University of Iceland between 1978 - 1981, then Professor of History at the University of Iceland, from 1981 to 2013.
He is also a tireless researcher AND traveller, who has been working as a visiting scholar in universities and research institutions
in Washington (USA), Freiburg (Germany), Montpellier (FRANCE), Antalya (TURKEY), Kyrenia ( NORTHERN CYPRUS), and in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) (SPAIN).
As he was staying at HÖFN, Þór Whitehead tried and finalized a part of his book (the fifth volume in the History of Iceland during the Second World War) for publication.
He actually came to Marseille directly from Freiburg where he devoted a part of his time during the winter in archival work in the German military archives.
In Marseille he planned (and did it!) to consult books and periodicals in major libraries such as the Alcazar, the Archives Départementales (Marseille) or the Bibliothèque Méjanes (Aix en Provence)
on the subject of Jewish emigration and flight from Nazi-Germany and German occupied territories between 1933-1942.
Marseille is indeed an extremely interesting city in this regard and Þór Whitehead hoped to acquaint himself with its role in the Jewish exodus.
About Gerður Guðmundsdóttir:
Gerður Guðmundsdóttir is an Icelandic textile artist.
She studied between 1988-91 in the Icelandic College of Art and Craft,Textile Department, in Reykjavík as well as taking various courses in the Art Academy of Reykjavík.
Indeed, Gerður Guðmundsdóttir 's work is about, around, and with TEXTILE.
Her main material has been the wool of the Icelandic sheep that she felts, cuts up, embroiders and uses silkscreen printing on.
In recent years she has as well done three dimensional works to be shown outdoors as well as indoors.
Gerður Guðmundsdóttir has participated in numerous exhibitions in Iceland, Germany, France, United States, Denmark, Turkey and South Korea.
Her solo exhibitions have been mainly in Iceland and Germany.
Through a scholarship to the Haystack Mountain School of Art in Main in the States, she took a course with a leading Korean artist, Chunghie Lee,
who specializes in the field of traditional Korean art, BOJAGI and has since been invited to participate in several international Bojagi exhibitions in Korea and the States.
During her staying at HÖFN, Gerður Guðmundsdóttir took some time working on her home page as an artist,
completed some textile pieces that she has been working on this last winter in Freibourg. This mostly involved embroidery and some finishing touches that did not require a work shop or a great space.
One of these pieces is for an international BOJAGI exhibition in Korea.
She (and Þór as well!) of course intented to roam around Marseille, drive through Provence,
and see all interesting art exhibitions that HÖFN would let her know about in Marseille and its surroundings... which she/ they did!
The 9th ofJuly 2016 2016, Gerður et Þór sent to HÖFN these two " litlar minningabækur" - little souvenir books:
MEMORIES FROM MARSEILLE - Some of the works that Gerður made: files/memoriesGfromMarseille.pdf
MEMORIES FROM MARSEILLE - Some of the things we did : files/memoriesGTHfromMarseille.pdf
