Falling in love with a difficult site is like falling in love with someone that is already taken. You know in all sensible thoughts that it should not happen - you list all the problems involved and the shit fight that will happen, but despite this you can't help but stare longingly at it and want to mold it into something workable, something achievable, something more magnificent than anything before. I am in Iceland currently, in a little town called Skagastrond, and am currently looking sites to stage a floating dinner (like pictured below) and, of course, have fallen in love with a very difficult space.
It is an old coal chimney stack that used to power the town fishing factory. It looks quite ugly from outside. And is dirty as all hell inside.
But the view upwards is so beautiful. And the brickwork is stunning.
And so I want to make it work, more than anything else. I would build the table inside as the opening is 50cm wide and the inside is 3m in diametre. I would clean up the floor and dig deep to see if there is a brick or concrete bottom underneath the muck. I would see if I can run power from afar and talk with the town electrician about lighting solutions. I would make it warm and inviting and a dinner for 5 or so people.
There are two other spaces to visit today - the church and 'fellsborg' which is a function space. They make more 'sense' and are user friendly but how my heart aches to make an incredible experience in a chimney stack. And if we go with the definition of site specific as being 'an artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning' - then this feels more true to a) creating an experience specifically in the space, rather than finding a space to suit a 100% formulated experience (more like a 'venue') and b) this is a part of the old town and it feels like this responds more to the history of the town, and enlivening unexpected spaces.
I'll keep you posted either way :-)
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