Hondartza Fraga

Tonight I have been to see a band of swedish folk music and world music, each member is from different parts of the world and they fuse it all together. I specially enjoy the songs with the violin and the double bass. Here is an example, although I couldn’t find the ones I enjoyed the most. They had a great energy and it was a great evening out!

Today Margrethe took me in the tram to Lian (‘Li means ‘hill’ and Lian means something like ‘many hills’), nearly 9 km from Trondheim city centre, approximately 230 meters over sea level. The views from the tram are stunning as it makes its way up and at the end of the line there is a beautiful forest and a frozen lake. On top of the hill there is a grand looking restaurant. A lot of people was going here to ski. It was raining so I had to be careful with my camera, but I will go back again on a clearer day. There was much more snow there than in the city and there is a very special silence up there, only broken by the chunks of snow falling from the trees and the occasional walkers.

This is the frozen lake. The little trees in the foreground are on a tiny island in the middle of the lake.


Margrethe told me the driver of this tram bears the typical local mustache. It is not very appreciable in the image but it is quite an impressive mustache indeed. A person from Trøndelag (this county) is called a Trønder. I have found a lot of images of these Trønderbart (Trønder mustache).

I have finally started to draw. A bit clumsily and slowly, small drawings of pedestrians from my photographs, they are all about 5 x 4 cms. I spent the morning in the Kafé Den Hvite Elefant (the white elephant cafe) at the studios, chatting away and taking some more pictures of the very special collection of elephant-souvenirs they keep over the piano. It is a lovely room. Apparently because the name of the room people started to bring elephant souvenirs whenever they found any. I like it a lot. I think the works for the exhibition at Babel are ready and I think it is time to start doodling and sketching away. I am also going to start working on some video ‘on-progress’ for the exhibition from all my recent footage.

some of my today’s drawings…

It has been snowing all day. Outside and inside in my studio everything is on a palette of off-whites. I feel a bit more optimistic about the works I did yesterday. I really like the light in here. The windows are amazing. There is a very thick and dense blankness. It is not emptiness but an obscuring layer of whiteness. I have found a few webcams in Trondheim. Most of them point to the docks. I walked around one of them a couple of days ago and got a glimpse of the fjord between the cranes and working ships. I must walk around the cost soon.

I had a bit of a disastrous day at the studio today. Basically I ruined two works and I had to start from scratch and not feeling very confident about them anyway. The day was so clear and crispy outside that I should have stopped there and then and go for a walk to clear my head, but no, being as impatient as I am I wanted to finish today… And I did in the end, but not with what I wanted. So I headed home early to work on some video footage instead and I had a bit of lucky with some findings on the internet that will be very helpful for the exhibition. I have too many vague ideas and not enough specific ones, some of my works result from lucky accidents, so I guess that in a way I am collecting data that I find interesting, waiting for the accident, waiting for something to click.

I am still hoping to see some polar lights while I am here, so I keep checking the space weather forecast. It looks like tonight it could be some aurora boreal visible from here, so I will be looking up from time to time. The SpaceWeather website is great. It has a little graphic showing the aurora boreal activity and lots of interesting data about space weather.

According to wikipedia, the circular designs of some doilies are reminiscent of the Polar coordinates system. I find this fascinating since my recent unconscious relation between circular doilies and my model ship drawing and webcam work. Here I am interested in the the concept of being lost (in norwegian mistet or savnet). But I realize now that mine will be an imagined, illusive or constructed ‘being lost’. Maybe I seek to lose perspective. Abandon a way of looking. I am interested in broken or faulty maps. On my first little trip to second hand shops I found lots of doilies, and a very old and torn of nordic art magazine that I find irresistible (in norwegian kunst means art).

Weather was lovely today and I revisited my favorite street in the world. Beautiful day

Yesterday was a full day, in the morning I met some of the other artists during a free coffee and cake session baked by Margrethe, one of the resident artists. Everybody is really friendly and thanks to Margrethe I now got a list of flea markets that I intend to tackle very soon. I spent the day in my studio filming from my windows and starting some very, very basic drawing. It was good. In the evening I had my first night out since arrival, first an opening in the art museum by artist Narve Hovdenakk, and then we went out for some drinks. It was quite an experience in a piano/karaoke bar. Yes. And no, I didn’t sing.

Today I walked into town. And that was the hardest part. Walking. With my eyes fixed to the ground to avoid falling like yesterday I found it a bit difficult to concentrate on the sights. Nevertheless I managed to take a few snapshots of the city centre, had a look at the cathedral, the main streets, joined the library and got some books about Trondheim. One is about the polar explorations. Looking forward to that one. Unfortunately my budget here doesn’t allow to stop for as many coffees as I would like to keep the cold in control so my day was a bit short.
I feel myself filling up with a strange sense of blankness that I need to learn to accept. I look and see snapshots that I recognize only too well before I have even taken them, so I don’t. I bought a very thick sketchbook, with the plan to start pouring this blankness out onto drawings; walked (very slowly) home and put the kettle on…

I have arrived. It has been the easiest journey I have ever done. My flight was on time, my suitcase appeared in the belt before myself, the bus was ready to depart and I got off at the right stop. No fuss at all.

My apartment is lovely and the studio is huge. Set on what it was an old school, it will be difficult to resist making some work about the building itself. Then I fell on my arse on the way to the supermarket and later I didn’t have enough money to pay for my shopping… A little fuss there.

New place, new people, new work. Tomorrow is when all the fuss begins, the good one.