The Birds Will Remain, 2025, Video, 00:30:07

In this video work, Weronika Balcerak and I return to the Hópsnes Peninsula — the site where, in 2023, Weronika built and installed a small roadside chapel dedicated to Stella Maris, the Holy Mother of the Sea. The chapel was part of her graduation project at the Iceland University of the Arts, and we placed it near Grindavík, a fishing town that has since become one of the central points of the volcanic eruptions around Sundhnúksgígar.

For months, the area was closed off due to repeated eruptions and evacuations. We didn’t know whether the chapel still stood, or if it had already vanished under the lava and ash. On Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025, during a brief reopening of the town, we went back. What we found were only traces — the pole that once carried the chapel and a buoy tied to it with a string.

The Birds Will Remain is a quiet return to a place marked by loss, change, and persistence. It’s about faith, not in a religious sense, but in the act of making something fragile and leaving it to face the elements.