Irmak Donmez // July-December

Irmak Donmez // July-December

// More of Irmak Donmez’s Work  //

http://irmakdonmez.com/

https://www.instagram.com/irmakdiyebiri/

Jessica Woodrow is from England and joined the factory team in the heights of summer in July 2017 and stayed with us into snowfall of December.  Jessica took on the role like a champion and helped us running the factory with humor and determination.

During her stay she earned her self the nickname Captain Jess as she headed our team to victory in a thrilling raft competition during Pólar festival 2017.  She also teamed up with us in painting and fixing up concrete damages on the Silo tower of the factory, which was nothing short of a massive undertake.  Along with our volunteer Coco she renovated a new artist house for the factory and they also saved a duck from an oil spill by giving her a thorough cleaning. That duck was named Shell and in our best knowledge lived a happy life after the ordeal.

There is a Icelandic saying, “að eiga sér hauk í horni” and it roughly translates as “to have a hawk on you side”, meaning that you have an ally or a helpful person beside you. And maybe that describes Jess well because she proved to be that hawk by our side and it was truly a pleasure to have her on board.  A funny thing and a beautiful side note to this is that during her six month stay we saw hawks on two occasions, and that is a rare sight to see.

Nisa Nur Sayan came all the way from Turkey to join our internship program. She arrived to Stöðvarfjörður in the cold and dark winter days of January 2017. For the next six months she stayed with us, working her magic in the office, until the ever-bright nights of June came about.

Every Intern that has stayed with us has had their own special field of interests. Nisa developed a keen interest and insightful focus on the making of video interviews with the Residency Artists, as well as photographing their artwork for their individual profiles on our website. As a result she delivered a carefully attended portrait of their works and practice.

When Nisa arrived, she had a full suitcase with all you need to make delicious Turkish food. What followed was a delightful dining experience for all team members of the factory and a great introduction to Turkish culture! But Nisa is not only a great chef, she also harbors artistic talents and creativity which she was able to explore with us during her time here.

Nisa is in all manners a kind-hearted diplomat and a dear member of the Fish Factory Family.

Ignas Janulis joined our forces on the later half of the year 2016 and arrived to Stöðvarfjörður in the sunny month of July and stayed until the dark blue days of December had passed us by. Ignas is a young graphic designer from Lithuania and he is wonderful :D  When he left he had improved and fine tuned many aspects of the residency management and the visual outputs of the Factory, f.x. here on this website and on our social media sites.

We had some pretty busy times during this period, and there was Ignas, this warm chilled out guy taking care of stuff, managing stuff and helping us out every step on the way in this crazy ass project. One of the big pushes we did during this period was to finish the new shared studio space for visiting Artists. During that time Ignas always made sure we had a daily dose of listening to Air on the stereo while he did some impressive work with a paint brush. So many tasks and missions emerged over a period of 6 months and Ignas was independent and on the ball, not to mention how damn good he was at wiring up lights with Vinny.

Ignas loves to drive and with any chance he headed off in the Green Thunder, up for every mission possible; artist pick ups, grocery shopping and swimming pool trips. We will miss him and we wish him godspeed on his journeys… but not to fast though :D

Elena is from Spain and came to us on a chilly morning in the beginning of January 2016. She stayed with us for 6 months and truly became a member of the Fish Factory Family. During her stay Elena took part in many events in that took place in the factory, several concerts, the Blues Festival, Karaoke nights, Open Studio Days and so on.

Elena also took part in organizing and teaching workshops with the local kids and teenagers along with our brilliant long term volunteer Raitis Bobrovs.  Elena, Raitis and Una are also the funding members of the international swimming team of the Factory, International Dolphins :)

Magdaléna Mandorla stayed with us for 5 months.