back An Icelandic explorer (born around the year 1000) statue that has two castings of the same monument with different stories of fate surrounding them.

One was placed in Philadelphia, US and the other in Reykjavík, Iceland. Linking together different geographical points, the statues have through the years aquired very different stories of visibility and ideology.

The statue in Philadelphia was toppled discreetly at night into the Scuylkill River 2018, following years of it serving as a meeting point of opposites and protests. Becoming a point of interest to extreme right wing groups and Antifa protesting the white supremacists group accumulating. At the same time the statue placed in the less populated place, Iceland, has had none of political display surrounding it. In fact it has become close to invisible, after being moved at least three times, each time to less centric place than before. Slowly becoming mundane part if its own surroundings next to a small cinema. Source: Left: 2015.KSS. Right: 2020.Author's own Heimskringla, newspaper published for Icelandic settlers based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1918.
1918 — first writing on the statue, story of a viking ‘"The statue as a memorial of the event when Þorfinnur Karlsefni was the first leader of white inhabitants of this area of this area of land" – and this being group of icelanders.

Þorfinnur Karlsefni is said to have been born around 972. In the year around 1007 he sailed with his spouse to “Vinland the good” and settled there supposedly for 2–3 years in peace. Then he went on to Greenland and later three years later on back again to Iceland. Þorfinnur Karlsefni was not known as a exceptional warrior and no sources have been found of him encountering in battles or encountering indiginous people.

Nevertheless the story puts him to be in the forefront of white settlement of this era of land, "and so should his name be remembered and elevated."" Like the article, from more than hundreds years ago, quotes the history of this viking persona has not become clearer to large extent since. Other than supposedly journeying to the nort America right behind Leifur Eiríksson.
(US)COMMISSION
& (IS)SCULPTOR 1920 Bunford Samuel in front of the statue, which stood in the same popular park next to The Schuylkill river, for 100 years.
First Casting of the statue was raised in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, 1920 Commission for Bunford Samuel (widowed Ellen Samuel). As a part of statues in the park based on the history of North America.
Einar Jónsson sculptor, working on one of the casting. the sculptor
From the statue of Ingólfur Arnarson, one of Iceland’s first settlers, to the monument to 19th century Icelandic independence figure Jón Sigurðsson, Einar Jónsson’s public sculptures have profoundly shaped the visual character of Iceland. Born in 1847 and educated in Denmark and Rome, Einar Jónsson sailed to the United States in 1917, and was commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association to create a sculpture of Þorfinnur Karlsefni, a Norse explorer who, as recounted in Grænlendinga saga and Eirík’s saga rauða, journeyed to Vínland, the fabled Norse settlement in North America.

Einar Jónsson Museum. Sourced 10.09.20. www.lej.is/en/.
(IS) MOVING & PLACEMENTS (US) First Casting of the statue was raised in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, 1920 Commission for Bunford Samuel (widowed Ellen Samuel). As a part of statues in the park based on the history of North America. (IS) A pilot feeding ducks at the south’s end of Reykjavík’s Lake Tjörnin (E. The Pond), Statue of Þorfinnur Karlsefni standing in the middle of a bay.
Statue moved in 1962 from its central location in ‘The Pond’. (IS) 1962 ’taken off the pedestal’
These images show the base being broken and the statue taking flight on its location on a small bay south of the Reykjavík Pond. It’s been a long time planning to move the statue of Þorfinn. Firstly it should be mentioned that the sculptor himself, Einar Jónsson, was not satisfied with it’s original placement, even though he was involved with the decicion. He had though expressed his will before his death, of it getting a new home. The removal and moving of the statue was no small task. When developments and plans of expanding the area of the pond in favour of the birdlife thriving there, it seemed like a good oppurtunity to relocate the statue at the same time. Now it has reached dry land and is in storage by the skrúðgarða of the city. This operation is done with approval and motivation of the Public art committee. Three main locations are up for discussion as the new location of the statue. Firstly west of Öskjuhlíð below the hot water supply tanks. Another idea is north of the Fishermen’s school, on the rockformations west of Tónabíó cinema – and that is the most likely placement. Also there have been mentions of Laugarás
(IS) 1976 —’MONUMENT GOING ON A JOURNEY?’ (IS) 1976 —’MONUMENT GOING ON A JOURNEY?’
Call for the monument of Þorfinn Karlsefni moved to Hrafnista retirement home. Sjómannadagsráð have sent for a formal request to city council for the statue of Þorfinn Karlsefni that has been standing in Hljómskálagarðinum park, to be moved and placed in front of Hrafnista, retirement home of former fishermen. "It was not certain if the statue would be moved or not, it was still standing in the same place in a central park (i. Hljómskálagarðurinn) when this picture was taken."

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The layout and planning on the location where the statue should stand, has already been prepared. It is still not certain if the statue will be moved or not, it was still standing in the same place in the central park (i. Hljómskálagarðurinn) when this picture was taken.
Statue moved to current location, placed on a small hill next to a retirement home (of former fishermen) and a small cinema. No longer in central Reykjavík park, the statue is more regularly passed by unnoticed by people on their way to see a movie. CURRENTLY PLACED
Statue moved to current location, placed on a small hill next to a retirement home (of former fishermen) and a small cinema. No longer in central Reykjavík park, the statue is more regularly passed by unnoticed by people on their way to see a movie.

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(DETAILS) (US) WHITE SUPREMASIST MEETINGPROTESTS & VANDALISM Meeting of white supremacist group on Leif Eirikson day (during the night). Holding banner of another statue that is neither Leifur nor Thorfinn, but another statue of a viking placed in Vancouver. 2007–
Since 2007 (at least), white supremacist group Keystone State Skinheads, or Keystone United, have held annual rallies in Fairmount Park on Leif Erikson Day (an holiday first designated by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964), using the sculpture of Þorfinnur as their symbolic meeting point. Keystone State Skinheads/Keystone United promotes its white supremacist ideology under the guise of “defending" their heritage.

www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/keystone-state-skinheadskeystone-united
Warnings sprayed, protests.
When anti-racist activists discovered the centrality of this statue to the Keystone State Skinheads, they staged protests and counter events at the site. As they organized each subsequent year to block hate groups from convening at the statue, Antifa and other anti-racist activists deployed direct action tactics including counterprotest, vandalism, and property damage. The statue became the focal point for a series of confrontations, which spanned a decade.

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/20131018_Skinheads
__protesters_headed_to_Fairmount_Park.html
Signage and spray paint used in expression of anti-racist messages.
2017—Protesters in front of the statue meeting white supremacist group head on.
(US)BROKEN PEDESTAL
& SUNKEN STATUE The statue heaved out of the river, with broken off head piece.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/10/03/historic-viking-statue-along-boathouse-row-found-toppled/ 2018 The heavy pedestal visibly broken off the foundations.
In October 2018 the statue (around 2,25 meters tall) was found on the bottom of the river, but a crowbar was found on the scene that is estimated to have been used in the process. It was realised that the head had been broken off the body, when the statue was dragged out of the river.

usso.uk/the-toppling-of-thorfinnur-vandalism-as-dialogue-and-direct-action/
The statue was retrieved out of the river the next day, with no clear indication of a suspect behind the act.
CURRENTLY & AFTERWORD Philatelphia location, 2020. Pedestal next to the river. The small free-standing signage is still readable, placed next to the pedestal. Reykjavík location, 2020. Still here, next to the cinema and elderly home. US
According to the Philadelphia Museum the statue is currently undergoing restoration and kept in storage, it is not clear if it will be placed again in the same place as before. Currently (2021) the podium is still there, with added wooden finishing, commonly used as a resting stop in the popular park by the Schuykill River.
There is a certain, more often than not, invisible cultural entaglement when there are multiple copies of distant placements of the same statue or monument.They are intertwined within themselves, and with that also follows the reaction and non-reaction.
The ideology that shaped it originally follows it and reforms in new contexts as to who feeds it attention and the actual person’s history is either erased, or forgotten due to the thousands of years that have passed.

How one of them has become be a utilized symbol of oppressing ideology in one contexts of a muchc larger urban city raises urgent questions and reflecting needed on the other, that has not ‘been noticed’ To reevaluate and open a dialouge of its role or history in enviroments could open up a redesign of its context. Reframing through added information to tell better of its original context to contrast to how it could be and has been used as a object of protest. Because right now it could be argued to be optimal for any appropriation, as the persona has become nameless, a symbol without a name.