Siorapaluk, the northermost community in the planet

Siorapaluk is an inuit settlement located in northern Greenland, on the west coast by Robertson Fiord, only 1362 km from the North Pole.

Qaanaaq, the area's main village, is less than 100 km to the south.

Siorapaluk is also the world's northernmost inhabited settlement (*)

Coordinates:  77° 47′ N, 70° 38′ W
Population:  ~ 70.
 

Siorapaluk reflects on the calm sea waters that bath its sandy beach

Siorapaluk means "little Sands", after the small sandy beach in front of the village. 

 Sand and ice

The settlement is as far as you can go north in Greenland and still have electricity, toilets and a shop. And TV, and internet.
Somehow, the last outpost of civilization...

Houses are generally well maintained and painted red, with a few in yellow or blue.

 Typical village house

 The local shop and post office

The church at Siorapaluk, with the side tower bell.

 The new school

View from school downwards to the sea in a sunny day

Many of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the last migration of Inuit from Canada in the past century. The main source for living comes from nature - there is good hunting and fishng in the area: birds, foxes and hares, seals and walruses.

The sledding craft is a daily job in this part of the world.

Trips by dog sled out into Robertson Fiord are a small extra income from summer tourists.

Returning home

Average temperature varies from the - 20ºC in winter to a few degrees above zero in summer (with records of -60, + 18ºC). High summer days have 24h daylight, but even that is usually not enough to get warm.

In recent years, though, the climate is less regular, there has been changes in ice thickness and higher temperatures.

Tall sandstone mountains surround the village, in tones of red and purple, ending at the sea in a narrow sand track. Farther, a glacier is visible in the bottom of the small Robertson fiord.

Long shadows as the only means of transport - dog sled - slides to the low sun:

(*) as a native community

The Arctic in Venice: glace/glass, the art of Bertil Vallien

In Venice, an exhibition of glass works by swedish artist Bertil Vallien is displayed at Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti.

Bertil Vallien's work is inspired by his experiences in the far north, in the glaces and glaciars of the arctic, and among inuit population.

Kayaks, the sacred myths, blue transparences, silence and light, the suspension of space and time...

All this in a venetian palace, looks ruther surreal; but the dialogue with the Murano glass works is rich in contrasts as well as in surprising points of contact.

The exhibition is called 9 Rooms, showing around 60 works in the first floor of the venetian palace.

Some of the works I liked the best:

The pendulum, glass, the tides, eternity...

This is glass - cobalt glass ! Not black, but a deep, deep blue.

More:
http://www.bertilvallien.nu/startsidan.html

Mykines, an island and a village in the Faroe islands

The village of Mykines is the only settlement on Mykines Island, the westernmost of the Faröe Islands.


Few people live in Mykines these days. Altogether there are 40 houses but only 6 are inhabited all the year round.


Population: ~ 21
Location: 62°6′ N, 7°38′ W



It is a beautiful little coastal village of bright houses with turf roofs, and a small stream flowing through. Almost a miniature of all the wonderfully preserved character of the Faröes.

Mykines island has no roads, and Mykines village has no streets: only well used footpaths weave between the buildings.


The old turf-roofed stone Church dating from 1878:


Houses around the church are among the oldest:




Mykines has a small harbour; a flight of about a hundred steps leads up to the village.

The ferry taking passengers, the way down many steps (at right).


Mykines Holmur


Mykines Holmur is a freestanding rock that is connected to Mykines by a small steal bridge, high as 35 meters. A lighthouse was built there on top of the cliff , in 1909.

The Lighthouse on Mykines Holmur

The access from the village to Mykines Holmur is cutted by a deep gorge called Holmgjogv:


Only recently a bridge was built across the straight, to allow tourists an easy visit to the bird sanctuary.

On the new bridge over Holmgjogv (the Holmur gorge).


The rock is inhabited by thousands of seabirds. The most large population is of Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), the only puffin species which is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The curious appearance of the bird, with its colorful huge bill and its striking piebald plumage, has given rise to nicknames such as "sea parrot".

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

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Though the regularity of ferry services can be disrupted by inclement weather, the ferry visits one to three times a week, except in winter.

It is possible, though, to reach Mykines three times a week by helicopter:

View from a helicopter as it lands on Mykines

HISTORY

The first settlers were most probably Irish monks. The first settlements of people from the northern countries is probably from around the 9th century. More placenames on Mykines are thought to have Irish or Celtic origin, and in this way are indicators of early Irish settlement.

896 - Mykines first school opened
1906 - painter Sámal J.- Mikines was born on 22 February, baptised Samuel Elias Frederik Joensen, but later changed his name to Mikines.
1909 - building of the first bridge over Holmgjogv, the narrow strait between Mykines and Mykines Holm.
1961 - work started to build a ramp to haul the boats ashore.

The painter Sámal Joensen-Mikines was born in Mykines in 1906 and died in 1979. He is the most famous painter in the Faröe Islands, and I published some of his pictures and facts in my previous post here.

The Kristianshús was Mikines' atelier; now it's the only visitors accomodation in the village, a nice guest house.



Sources and more about Mykines:

http://heima.olivant.fo/~mykines/
http://www.heinesen.fo/faroeislandsreview/

Sámal Joensen-Mikines ,a faroese painter

Sámal Joensen-Mikines (1906-1979) was a Faroese painter, born at Mykines, one of the Faröe Islands, in the North Atlantic sea. He was recognised as one of the most important artists there, and many of his paintings have been displayed on Faroese stamps.

I have just recently discovered his work, during some research on the net.

Tualsgården, 1957

The most early works of Mikines are from the middle of the 1920s. He then painted in a dark expressionist style.

Faroese dance, 1944

Mikines' symbolic, expressive, sombre and dramatic paintings often portray scenes where death plays a major role. The darkest paintings are dated soon after 1934, which became a fateful year for Mykines. The village was struck by grief when a large part of its male population was drowned because of the wreck of two ships in a collison.

At the Death Bed, 1940

Two of my favorite paintings belong to the final years of this phase:

"This painting shows a woman standing beside the sea coast, looking out for her husband just departed to the sea. Although this set is dedicated to "Famous Women", the women are anonymous, but Mikines intended it to represent the Faroese Woman."

The ships depart, 1947

This rising of the sun strucks me for its bauty - a dismal, gloomy expressionism giving way to hope for the new day:

The Morning Sun, 1947

But later paintings of, for example, his native village were noticeably light and idyllic, more naturalist, fresh colored and precise:

Vew from Mykines islet, 1959

On his native village he draw and painted, and also made rough sketches which later became paintings during the winter spent in Denmark.

Mykines, 1959

Mykines is the westernmost of the Faröe Islands, and also its only and beautiful little coastal village - rows of bright and coloured houses with turf roofs, an old turf-roofed stone Church dating from 1878, and a small stream flowing through.

The village of Mykines, violet evening, 1955

Mykines houses, 1950

But then later paintings show the return to some drama and more dimmed colours:

North wind, 1957

Breaking the Waves, 1952
(clic to enlarge)

The Mailboat, 1955

Apart from Listaskálin in Tórshavn, where a great permanent exhibition is displayed by the Faröe Islands Art Gallery, paintings of Sámal Joensen-Mikines can also be seen in the Faroese Parliament as well as in many banks all over the Faröes. Paintings of Mikines can also be seen abroad, in Copenhagen's "Statens Museum for Kunst" .

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My next post, in continuation, will be a short report on Mykines village and island. I published here before about some other locations on this fabulous Faröe archipelago, one of the most remote places in Europe.