For one night only, transdisciplinary artist Julian Harold will take over Herðubreið's theatre for an exclusive, site-specific and experimental performance titled Auðumbla. An array of flower arrangements, video projections, live poetry and music connecting local and international artists, Auðumbla immerses the audience in an idiosyncratic and self-enclosed world. Auðumbla refers to the eponymous cow from Norse myth from whom we are the descendants. The action occurs under a suspended time frame, parallel to the one in which we live and where nature is held hostage. On the eve of savage green terrorism, original cow Auðumbla floods the rivers with her milk, nourishing the biosphere from her udders. Drawing a line between past and present, the performance investigates our rampant race toward modernity. The show presents a time when the human footprint on this planet will have been so disastrous that the biosphere now solely exists digitally. The digital era accelerated a relentless onslaught of graphic images through various medias. As a consequence, fiction and reality became one, dramatically blurring our capacity to discern truth from falsehood. With Auðumbla comes a reunion with the most visible features of nature.

Einn
Hringsnúandi jarðarhvel
Forboðið að sameinast

Ekkert ginnungagap

Engir himnar

Engin sólhvörf

Ekkert jafndægur

Eingöngu svelt jörð
Sem þráir kraftaverk

Að binda enda á tvískiptinguna

One
Rotating hemispheres
Banned from merging

No abysses

No heavens 

No solstice

No equinox

But a famished earth
Craving miracles

A duality to implode

Tveir
Hrjóstrug jörð
Eldpípur
Veita véfréttinni heilræði

Múspellsheimur ristir klakann
Tár Niflheims
Bráðna undir rauðum himni

Falla meðfram brúnum munnans
Við síðustu áeggjan

Hin endandlega fórn
Munúðarfull útungun
Helgur núningur

Skaut alheimsins
Kynlaus gjörningur
Elur af sér margar kynslóðir

Two
Barren lands
Inflamed pipes 
Consulting the oracle

Muspelheim scarring the ice

The tears of the Niflheim

Melting under a red sky


Dropping along the lines of its orifice
In a last impulsion

Ultimate offering
Sensual hatching 
Sanctified rubbing

Womb of the universe
Asexual performance

Bearing countless generations

þrír
Kraftaverk

Auðhumla

Jörðin nærist á mjólkinni
Úr spenum þínum

Óafturkræfur greiði

Með júgrum þínum
Nærir þú mannkynið

Kraftaverk

Afkvæmi
Förunautur
Ýmir

Virðingarfyllst
Afneitar heiminum fyrir okkur

Kraftaverk

Ganga í kring
Virkja hið lárétta hjól
Vakta handfang þess af ákefð
Hverfult tungl

Örlög okkar velta á spenum þínum

Auðhumla

Líf sem velta á rakastigi
Með fortíðarþrá
Dýraríki í hættu
Villandi birtingarmynd

Auðhumla

Three
A miracle

Auðumbla

From your tentacules
You breast-feed the Earth

Irreversible gesture


From your udder
You nourish our civilisation

A miracle

Offspring

Companion

Ymir


With the greatest respect
Renouncing the world for us

A miracle

Walking all around

Activating the horizontal wheel
Furiously monitoring its handles 
Ephemeral moon

Our destiny depended on your teats

Auðumbla

Lives depending on a state of moist
With nostalgia
A fauna in jeopardy 
Illusory manifestations


Auðumbla 

Fjórir
Með tungunni þinni
Sleikir þú burt öll saltlög

Fjall eftir fjall
Sleikir lausa fyrstu manneskjuna

Hvínandi vindur yfir hárinu hans
Visnandi sjáaldur
Berskjölduð húðþekja

Fjall eftir fjall

Sjóðandi æðar
Liðbönd koma í ljós
Með þakklæti

Fjall eftir fjall

Four
From your tongue

You lick away every salty layer

Mountain after mountain
Licking free the first of the men

Whistling wind over his hair
Withered pupils 
Exposed epidermis

Mountain after mountain

Boiling veins
Unfolding ligaments
With gratitude

Mountain after mountain 

Fimm
Mennskur minnisvarði
Faðir íssins

Þú fjölgar þér einn

Andleg iðkun
Aldrei eins

Gast af þér banamenn þína
Upprunalegt föðurmorð

Blóð þitt flæðir um forn höfin
Úr beinum þínum
Þeir bjuggu til hæstu tinda
Úr hári þínu
Reistu synir þínir plönturíkið
Fleygðu heila þínum á meðal stjarnanna
Og augnhárum þín til að tryggja samstöðu

Við töldum okkur hafa skapað guðina
Við kepptumst við þau

Afneitum viðstöðulaust
Hve frumstæðar verur við erum

Án árangurs
Grípum í sleip horn geitarinnar 
Í síðasta

Sinn áður en þeir sprengja maga okkar

Five
Human monument

Father of the ice


You reproduce on your own

Spiritual exercice

Never equalled

Spawned your slayers
Original patricide

Your blood floods the ancient oceans

From your bones
They raise thet peaks
From your hair
Your sons lifted up the flora
Hurled your brain to align with the stars

And your eyelashes to guarantee unity

We thought we created the Gods

We competed them


Relentlessly denying
The primeval creatures we are

Vainly gripping
The slippery horns of the goat

In a last attempt

Before they burst our stomachs