Film script

FILM SCRIPT / MONOLOGUE

EXHIBITION AT THE ARCTIC ARTS FESTIVAL

26.6 - 2.7. 2022

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Let us take you on a journey into the microcosm

Take a breath

Now one more

An extraordinary organism four times thinner than a human strand of hair

Even if you lived your whole life without seeing a diatom, without even hearing the word, you would still live a life which is shaped by it. Down to the oxygen you inhale. This is thanks to their big contribution towards the world’s photosynthesi

Of all the photosynthesis that occurs on earth, ¼ is thanks to the diatoms, putting them on a level with all the rainforests of the earth put together, which means we owe a lot to these microorganisms

They use silica which is eroded from the mountains

To make shells which allow them to reproduce

Their population doubles each day

Silica is the same material glass is made of

And they photosynthesise

Each and every one produces oxygen

take a breath

now one more

think that one of these breaths in its entirety was delivered by the diatoms

The size of dust particles,  they buzz restlessly around the ocean

Enlarging them, one observes geometrical and biological architecture

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we are bodies of water

we breathe with the tide and the waves are lapping in our bellies

we cry salt tears, and our bodies excrete liquid, in these ways

the water flows on in eternal circulation

the water we exchange 

tells a story about

cohesion and interspecies connection

and symbiosis between humans

and other organisms

one day the ocean will come for you

but it has always been with you

it flows in you

you are a world sea of 

different microorganisms, 

bacteria, virus, fungi and flora

in the body

and one day

your little ocean

will be

a part of the world ocean

the lapping waves in your belly will match

the rhythms of

the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, Indian Ocean, 

Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean

The spring bloom of the diatoms can be seen from space as organic, turquoise, 

green and brown spirals in the sea

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Can you see the oil drops in them?

Here they store energy which can be used later, if it should become difficult to find light and nutrition.

These small organisms are so good at making this fatty oil that scientists have been wondering if we can use diatoms as tiny, tiny factories that make sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel not only for them, but for our future planes

They see water as a symbol of power, something that can be bought and sold, a place of origin for resources

Be careful with the intentions behind using other organisms

If the ocean is opened up for them

Can it be transformed into an empty and lifeless deep?

As people once back in time thought it was down there?

What about creating another relationship to the living planet

We can decide that there are things we do not need

And that some places are special

Important enough to leave alone

The continents dissolve into the ocean, grain after grain of eroded land

The rain that lifted from the ocean will return to the rivers

Sami ways of living, such as coastal fishing and reindeer herding is set aside

of an economy and a system that does not care for the ecosystems it itself is reliable

and those who live within the tolerance limit of nature

Sludge from mining, with large amounts of heavy metal copper will spread and affect life in the fjord

Where cod, saithe, herring, haddock, halibut  and flounder swim

We need stories which connect us to the ocean. Some of the stories already exist, some must be retold and some must be created. 

Whales live in herds and use sound to communicate

Hvaldimir has never learned to talk in other ways than motor

He has his own motor dialect which no one else responds to other than the boats in the harbor

The past contains all the unclear origins of life

And in the end it receives it all again

Because everything returns to the sea

In a constant current of time

In twenty eight days there is an absolute calmness on the island of the eider duck

After solstice the small ones follow their mother to the sea. One of five ducklings grow up.

Fewer and fewer people live on isles on the outer edges of the North Norwegian Coast. 

After the war people were given eviction salary for the society to save energy and water, and in modern times this story continues with streamlining and bureaucracy

Spending weeks by a down feather harp to make a duvet is something few people are willing to do

A diver found a plastic bag in the Mariana Trench, the deepest existing blue hole, the plastic bag had traveled eleven thousand metres down the ocean

«det årnæ se i synjå», she says. It means “it will work itself out at sea.” The saying is illustrating that if you have dragged the whole fishing line in without coiling, so that it lies in one big tangle in the boat, it can help to throw the whole thing in the sea again. And the problem will solve itself, so a variation of “wait and see”

They say we know more about the dark side of the moon, than we know about the depth of the ocean

Jens is ninety years old. He taught me how to tie a fishing net. 

We tie threads that connect us to the bottom of the sea. 

There is a rhythm to it, and the craft turns into conversation

We tug, and we let go

Up from the yarn comes stories about Lofot fishing, eider duck traditions and fish parasites.

Pressure and darkness are the conditions of the deep sea

On the coastlines of the world is an exceptional chorus of fish, shrimps and algae. Together with a lot of life not yet identified. 

When low tide arrives the underwater soul comes forward, and everything becomes so much bigger. 

The coastal sea around the city has lost some of its volume. 

The ocean gives and the ocean takes, he repeats while we talk about his island in Hysvær

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We have not defined the sound of the deep sea yet

But recordings of deep sea pits discloses screams, moans and frequencies

The sources of the sounds not yet identified

We know about the longitude and latitude 

But the third dimension introduces the darkness of the ocean

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The deafening sound from the Black-legged kittiwake is the first thing that hits you on the way towards a bird mountain

The sound gets lower  

The black-legged kittiwake is on its way to New Foundland. Here the sea butterfly is on the main menu

But the sea butterfly gets a thinner and thinner shell as the ocean acidifies, which comes as a shadow of climate changes

This makes the black-legged kittiwake come nearer to you and me

Everytime you zoom out from the diatom, you meet the macrocosmos of the ecosystems connected with it.

Everything intertwined in a chaotic and exact fashion. 

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Take a breath

Now one more