ACTION NUMBER TWO HERE

This autumn we are continuing our project in Nuuk – (and hopefully wider in Greenland at a later date). Three students from Copenhagen are in Nuuk now studying one block of apartments and they are collecting the material on one special site named IMAGINED SPACE.

Imagined Space is a project about “Block P” in Nuuk, Greenland, and the people who have or are living there. Block P was the largest residential building in all of Greenland, and the largest building in Nuuk. It contains around 500 apartments and it is said that approximately 1% of the total population of Greenland lived in this building. During next spring it will be demolished and all the inhabitants will be relocated along with a lifetime of memories. Many of the inhabitants had been living there for most of their lives. The block is now a ghost town with only few families left.

The action designers this time are: Sarah Bodil Hansen (graphic designer), Matylda Rasmussen (graphic designer)  and Käthe Stougaard Kofoed Espersen is filming for documentation.

We want to involve designers and creative people more in the work that the locals are doing in developing communication and presentation of the culture and living in Greenland. This is just first introduction to this second step in developing design-action in the country by our schools and hopefully we will be able to gain access to support both from the local culture and from the outer specialist institutes that can help the development.

Here is a small image from the other blog:

Sea and Blocks

Sea and Blocks

Letters and Drawings from Nuuk

I have received two letters from Birthe and Maritha from Nuuk elderly home. Here they are:

I also asked a few kindergarten children to draw themselves. Here are some of the drawings:

Inuunerup Oqaluttuassartai / Life Stories

The stories flow in Nuuk. Between the houses, on the streets, in the homes, with the mountains lurking close behind the grey concrete blocks and colourful wooden houses. Their presence create a perfect setting for these stories to unfold. Social connections and the communal memories of Nuuk are man made and “designed” through time and shapes the capital as much as the visible and tangible buildings, however they are fluid and changing with the unfolding new life stories, new generations and the course of time. To capture these constellations or designs I have talked to Birthe, who often visits the local elderly home and who used to be the matron of the place. I also spoke with Maritha, who lives in one of the rooms at the home.  I asked them to write me a letter and I will collect it tomorrow afternoon over a cake and some coffee. I am looking forward to reading their stories and talking to them about it. I like hand written letters.

Here are some photos from today:

Later today I am going to talk to Edvard,- a local teenager, and some of his friends. I will ask them to draw how they imagine their future in 5 years. After that I will also go the the kindergarten and ask a few of the children to draw how they see themselves.

Hopefully this will create foundation for working with the invisible and make it as tangible as the buildings. Perhaps create a visual language of life stories.

SARAH BODIL HANSEN

I am Danish, live in Copenhagen and I am in my 2nd year of the MA studies at The Danish Design School. I like illustration and printing such as lithography and copper etchings. Next year I will take part of a journey on the seven seas destined to China with an Aluminum sailing boat that I helped to build in Norway this summer. On that trip I will bring a small printing press with me and do some copper etchings along the way.

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