For three months, from the 8th of January until the 5th of April 2018, Fríða Ísberg and Tómas Ævar Ólafsson were "our" residents at HÖFN.
Here is the way they presented themselves: We are a couple from Reykjavík, both graduating from Háskóli Íslands, Tómas (28) in philosophy and me, Fríða (25), in Creative Writing.…
(Have a look HERE: In 2018, 2 residents stayed at HÖFN. Here they are: in case you'd like to know -much- more about them!) .
For her last days at HÖFN, Fríða Ísberg had invited the Svikaskáld (the Impostor Poets) to join her in Marseille,
to work on a new collective poetry collection, which could focus, (may be?) on female heritage in witchcraft, memory and empowerment...
- Four of them (instead of five) could come- : Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, Ragnheiður Harpa Leifsdóttir, Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir, Sunna Dís Másdóttir.
HÖFN had found (a long time ahead, since this was a dream Fríða had many months BEFORE her residency at HÖFN ) a great place for them to be all together,
should we say... perfect?!... and actually a rather idyllic accomodation, fairly cheap, very friendly,
through the Coopérative HÔTEL DU NORD at Vincent and Brigitte's welcoming home,
not so far from HÖFN, in a charming district in the Northern area of Marseille, "L'Estaque"!
They did not say much, keeping some secret about the fruit of their work for four days, five nothern girls, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, but we know it WAS PROLIFIC!.
The 26th of March 2018, everybody gathered together and spent a joyful evening at HÖFN, on our good old terrace!..
... and when it became too windy and dark, inside, near the wood-burner…
We may be should not count this sweet and beautiful evening as an "event"!
HÖFN events have always been rather "intimate", inviting at the most about 40 guests! This time, we were only TEN (counting Dominique, HÖFN coordiantor, and her man, Jean!)
HÖFN only wished to offer the Svikaskáld (the Impostor Poets), Fríða among them, and Tómas, "our" residents,
the Impostor Poets' hosts Vincent and Brigitte an occasion to simply chat, all together, to drink to...anything which could be a merry alibi (!), a break in everybody's life, just an evening to get to know each other a bit more!
But we had NOT realised that we had brought together FIVE poets, and a philosopher: the evening itself became pure poetry!!
Here, some snapshots that Dominique Poulain (HÖFN coordinator) took that evening as we celebrated excellent reviews about the poetry collectionl : Ég er ekki að rétta upp hönd – in French : Je ne lève pas la main,
or read poems (in Icelandic) that the non Icelandic-speaking persons among us (Jean, Brigitte, Vincent!) tried to "understand", purely intuitively...
Waiting for the "Svikaskáld", on our good old terrace, the 26th of March 2018....
From left to right, Fríða Ísberg, Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir, Ragnheiður Harpa Leifsdóttir, The same girls - their feet…
Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, Sunna Dís Másdóttir... celebrating a great review of their poetry book:
"Ég er ekki að rétta upp hönd"... They had just heard about it that very day!!
Photo on the left: Tómas Ævar Ólafsson, Fríða Ísberg, Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir, Ragnheiður Harpa Leifsdóttir, Melkorka Ólafsdóttir, Sunna Dís Másdóttir... and Brigitte,(their host in L'Estaque )...
... still celebrating the excellent review of their poetry book: "Ég er ekki að rétta upp hönd"!
Photo on the right: Adding Jean Cristofol, and Dominique to the group, as Brigitte takes the photo... Still celebrating the excellent review of their poetry book: "Ég er ekki að rétta upp hönd"!
Inside, a bit later, celebrating Linda Vilhjálmsdóttir, as the new European poet of Freedom!! CONGRATS, LINDA
About LINDA VILHJALMSDOTTIR, have look HERE!
Brigitte, The Imposter Poets' host in Marseille wanted to hear the girls reading (in Icelandic) some of the poems from ":Ég er ekki að rétta upp hönd"...
... and she had this strange idea of an extraordinary GAME: Since 3 among us (Birgitte herself, Vincent Fraschina, her man - who arrived bit later, and Jean Cristofol did NOTunderstand a word in Icelandic,
they'd have to GUESS what the poems were about.
What happened was pure magic... Intuition IS pure magic!!
Þóra is reading here the poem "Fyrirgefðu", as Malkorka records this very moving moment....
Some are intensely listening, some record, some are reading.... some GUESS.... INTUITION LEADS US AND PULLS US TOGETHER!
Fríða Ísberg and Tómas Ævar Ólafsson ,"our" residents for 3 months in 2018...
Here, a journalist from Grapevine (a quite interesting cultural Icelandic newspaper, written in English) discusses with Fríða Ísberg
about the poetry collective Svikaskáld (“The Impostor Poets”)