In Remembrance – Mikkjal G. Hansen & SIC – Fighters They Bleed
A collective work-of-art to remember a collaborative work as well as the golden age of Faroese metal music.
I conclude my artistic work with this project in remembering Mikkjal G. Hansen together with Faroese people. First I made a new video artwork from my vast archive of photos from a long-term photo documentary about with the Faroese metal band SIC. The extensive collaborative work was made together with the band and their nearest families. The aim of this collaborative work was to portray the everyday life of the band on the Faroe Islands and to these images also intertwined more outstanding circumstances from the band's tour in Europe and from other musical scenes. I worked with the band and the SIC family during 2008–2010. I funded the artistic work with my day work at Nordic institutions as I was told the theme is niche. The joint photo documentary work was presented in an exhibition called Fighters They Bleed in Helsinki 2010, that the SIC members never got to see, and for many reasons this exhibition never found its way to the Faroe Islands.
Due to the passing of the band’s lead vocalist Mikkjal G. Hansen in fall 2021 I continued my work with SIC to document their final concert at G! Festival in Syðrugøta, Faroe Islands in July 2022 as well as the preparations and rehearsals for that final concert. For the festival I made a new video artwork to remember and honour Mikkjal G. Hansen (see it below). For the SIC stage at the festival I made a large vinyl poster of the “iconic photo” of Mikkjal that people have started to use to remember Mikkjal (e.g. it was featured in Swangah’s Belials Synir 10 year anniversary book). I made an Open Call at the G! festival as a PDF flyer to collect visual and textual memories of Mikkjal. The aim was to make a collective video artwork of these memories.
This work-of-art was presented as the exhibition In Remembrance in Smiðjan í Litluvík, Tórshavn. The exhibition included old artworks from the Fighters They Bleed exhibition and new artworks made in collaboration with the SIC family, the Faroese metal scene and beyond. To the opening came many people and the few days of the exhibition became a collective remembering of our dear Mikkjal but also a joint tribute to commemorate the Golden age of Faroese metal music that I had become a part of.
The exhibition In Remembrance and the pre-work / intervention at G! Festival 2022 was supported by Uttanríkis- og mentamálaráðið, Føroyar / Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture, Faroe Islands.
VIDEO ARTWORK | IN REMEMBRANCE
VIDEO ARTWORK | IN REMEMBRANCE (TEASER)
GIF Teaser for In Remembrance, a new video artwork made from the archives of my work with SIC.
Photo by Gudmar Hansen in collaboration with Mikkjal G. Hansen, myself, Jákup Pauli Gaard Olsen, Eyðun Müller Thomsen & Magnus Elisson.
From SIC’s Pandemonium tour in 2009.
PHOTOGRAPHS | IN REMEMBRANCE
Photographs from the archives of my work with SIC. This is a photo of Mikkjal G. Hansen performing at the last gig in Southampton of SIC’s Pandemonium tour 2009. The photo is remade to feature SIC’s last performance at G! Festival 2022. I made a vinyl poster of the photo that was on display at the SIC stage at the festival. Halgir Magnusson and Friði Djurhuus helped me to install the poster on the wall of Grundin stage.