tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
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1966-imut qiviarneq. 1989<br />
sumiiffiup oqaluttuassartaanut piviusuusumut.<br />
Nammineq inuunerisap<br />
sumiiffigisallu imminnut ataqatigiinnerisa<br />
kaaviiaarfigaat qanga pisunut<br />
qanoq isiginninneq aamma Danmarkip<br />
Kalaallit Nunaatalu oqaluttuassartaannut.<br />
Kalaallit Nunaata assingata atuarfimmi<br />
atugassiap qanganitsap nammineq<br />
nunap assingatut nalunaaqqutsersukkatigullu<br />
uppernarsarpaat Danmarkip<br />
Kalaallit Nunaatalu akunnerminni<br />
pisortatigoortumik oqaluttuassartaat,<br />
tassungali assingusumittaaq inuup<br />
nammineq oqaluttuassartaa, tassami<br />
Kalaallit Nunaata assingani sumiiffiit<br />
nalunaaqutserneqarsimasut tassaapput<br />
Pia Arkep meeraaffigisimasai. Arke<br />
isumaqarpoq Kalaallit Nunaata assingata<br />
assipalukkaa iloqiaap (tuluup Elefantmandimik<br />
taaneqartartup) niaqua<br />
iloqiaasortaaq aalajangersimasumiit<br />
isigalugu – tassa nunap assinganik<br />
qimerluuineq, nunap assinganik qimerluueriaatsit<br />
nalinginnaasut sinaakkutaannik<br />
qaangiisoq.<br />
Nammineq misigisanik allaatigisaq<br />
angerlarsimaffigivisat najugaqarfigisimasaviilluunniit<br />
akornanni<br />
ingerlaartutut ippoq, paasiniaanerullunilu<br />
Danmarkip Kalaallit Nunaatalu<br />
tamalaartumik marloqiusaasumillu<br />
attaveqatigiinnerannik. Ingerlaaseq<br />
eqqaanarsinnaavoq misissuinernut<br />
allanut, ajoqersuiartortitat, ilisimasassarsiortut,<br />
inuiaat kulturiannik<br />
inuusaasiannillu paasiniaasut kiisalu<br />
nunap assiliortartut suliaannut,<br />
kisiannili taamaangajaannarluni.<br />
Meeraanermimmi nalinginnaasumik<br />
eqqaamasatulli pisortatigoortumik<br />
oqaluttuaq oqaluttuareqattaarneqartaqaaq<br />
assigiinngeqisunillu. Meeraanermit<br />
eqqaamasat equngasumik<br />
assingupput Danmarkip Kalaallit<br />
Nunaatalu attaveqatigiinnerannik<br />
nalinginnaasumik takorloortakkanut,<br />
eqqaasitsisumik oqaluttuarisaaneq<br />
oqaluttuassartarpassuaqartoq isortorlu.<br />
Mette Jørgensen<br />
Pia Arke. First Flash Back to 1966 in Dundas.<br />
1989<br />
It must be a family. Grownups<br />
standing around talking.<br />
Children on swings in front of<br />
the house. A pram, a bicycle,<br />
a seesaw, flowers. The picture<br />
reminds us of the kind children<br />
often make a huge number of in<br />
childhood – dad, mum, children<br />
and house: the idea of a family<br />
that attaches itself to the specific<br />
places where we have lived,<br />
as permanent landmarks in the<br />
landscapes of our memories.<br />
The picture looks back to<br />
a childhood somewhere in<br />
Greenland; a visual attempt at<br />
recalling something that has<br />
happened. It is a scene that<br />
is taking place – summoned<br />
by memory – and its dramatic<br />
content grips the present from<br />
where it is remembered. The<br />
scene does not evoke nostalgia,<br />
but seems to make room and a<br />
future for the life that is placed<br />
between then and now. The<br />
autobiographical is an action<br />
in the present that derives its<br />
material from the hiding places<br />
of reality and gives it dramatic<br />
life.<br />
An autobiography does not<br />
invent its story – it transforms<br />
it. The picture is murky, frayed<br />
at the edges, the surroundings<br />
are unclear and without a<br />
horizon. It is a point in time, a<br />
place situated between Greenland<br />
and Denmark, between<br />
bearskin trousers and flowers,<br />
between a Greenlandic mother<br />
and a Danish father. The present-day<br />
recollection does not try<br />
to recreate an original and pure<br />
“I”, but explores a confusing and<br />
ambiguous descent.<br />
The autobiographical is personal,<br />
but is also connected with<br />
the place and its history. The<br />
factual personal background<br />
reaches out for the history of<br />
the actual place. The link between<br />
the personal life and the<br />
place circles around the relation<br />
to the past and to the story of<br />
Denmark and Greenland.<br />
On an old school map of Greenland<br />
we find confirmation both<br />
from the map itself and from<br />
the lines drawn on it of the<br />
official history shared between<br />
Denmark and Greenland; but<br />
this is parallel with the personal<br />
history since the places the<br />
lines point to in Greenland are<br />
places where Pia Arke actually<br />
lived as a child. Arke thought<br />
that the map of Greenland<br />
resembled the Elephant Man’s<br />
monstrous head from a certain<br />
angle – in itself a reading of the<br />
map that goes beyond the traditional<br />
limits for what a map<br />
represents.<br />
The autobiographical action<br />
moves among the concrete<br />
homes or settlements and<br />
explores a variegated and<br />
ambiguous connection between<br />
Denmark and Greenland. The<br />
movement is similar to other<br />
explorations that missionaries,<br />
explorers, ethnographers and<br />
cartographers have carried out,<br />
but only almost. But as is the<br />
case with childhood memories<br />
in general, the official history<br />
is also retold many times<br />
and in many ways. Childhood<br />
memories are a skewed parallel<br />
to current ideas about the connection<br />
between Denmark and<br />
Greenland that remind us that<br />
history is manifold and murky.<br />
Mette Jørgensen<br />
15