The Promise

Benten Clay

Iceland as an embodiment of promise is the premise of the photographic and filmic notes that Benten Clay brings together in this exhibition to form an installation network. It is a promise of a natural paradise, which may not be compatible for very much longer with the simultaneous promise of the lowest energy prices in the world. Many dreams are tied to the small, distant, harsh country, the geologically youngest land in the world, which despite being badly shaken by the financial crisis is still a country with the one of the highest living standards in the world. Politicians sell resources, and with them the country’s future, to foreign industry. In their photography and film essay, Benten Clay addresses various aspects of lobbying, entanglements and interference in nature. They are multi-layered visual commentaries on the government’s promise of workplaces, wealth, power and influence by means of dubious projects for energy production, with irreversible disadvantages for nearly everyone involved as their result.