Cultural agency - an Icelandic example

Today I was asked if I noticed the effect of the banking crisis in Iceland. I replied "Yes, one of the top songs in Iceland at the moment is about needing to rebuild the nation after the crisis, and there was some art about it too". I think my interlocutor was more concerned about prices of commodities, but naturally I'm fascinated by how the people of Iceland are using culture to make a political point.

It's obviously not a new idea, but I'd never heard the term 'cultural agency' until at a conference late last year. From what I can find out, it's still a fairly new term, without consensus on exactly what it means (though reading Cultural Agency in the Americas edited by Doris Sommer would be a good start to understanding the term). The central idea is that cultural practices are used to promote change or action from within a certain situation. In the case of Iceland, both music and artwork are being used to call for a response to the financial crisis.

The song I mentioned earlier is Stondum Saman (Stick Together) by Helgi J Oskarsson and is incredibly catchy. At the time of writing, it's number 4 in the Icelandic chart and played so frequently that we heard it on the radio a good 5 or 6 times in the space of a few days. More than just a jaunty tune, it's a call to arms. The song denounces those who grew rich on Iceland's economic failure and urges the people to join together to create a stronger nation for the future generations. It's inspiring to hear songs like this on mainstream radio - I'd love to know whether people are following its message or just enjoy singing along.

The artwork I referred to was Adalsteinn Stefansson's Grabbing the Void, housed in the Reykjavik Art Museum as part Iceland's contribution to the EU funded European Public Art Centre. The whirlpool at its centre is supposed to represent how all the money was suddenly, shockingly sucked away, while the cherrypickers recall the continued grasping for commodities. While the piece is clearly a response to the crisis, it has much less impact than the song. It doesn't suggest future action, only criticises the current situation. Nonetheless, both pieces are interesting examples of cultural agency; creatives using their work to respond to and hopefully change a specific socio-political situation.