ART PROGRAMME
There are three strands to the art programme. The first is a film screening and discussion event titled Sustainable Visions curated by Translocal [www.translocal.org].
Sustainable Visions
This film screening will feature artists’ films that engage with issues of sustainability, both from an environmental and cultural perspective, in Central Europe.
We envisage a two-hour event, starting with a short introduction, then around 60 minutes of artists’ films, followed by a moderated discussion to deal both with the issues raised by the film and the context in which they were made, concluded with a reception and the opportunity for further informal exchange.
The artists whose film or video work is shown will be mostly from Croatia and Hungary. The Central European perspective they offer will provide interesting comparative angle for an Irish audience, who have their own related experiences of rural transformation. The films also deal with social relationships and the Other in closed communities, as well as exploring the desire and possibility to reconnect with disappearing rural traditions.
There would be between 5 and 7 films in the screening. The films shown will include Goran Dević’s Imported Crows (2004), Csaba Nemes’s Africa Day (2006), a new film by Beata Veszely, and one of Ivan Ladislav Galeta’s films. The other films will be decided in due course.”
The second strand Local Local will take place in Glor, curated by Deirdre O’ Mahony. A “LOCAL LOCAL” is a commonly used term in Clare for one with a deep-rooted connection to a particular parish or locality. The curatorial parameters of LOCAL LOCAL are defined by choosing work that is informed by a vertical rather than a horizontal perspective; a uniquely local frame of representation that tells us something of the “…intersections of nature, culture, history, and Ideology (that) form the ground on which we stand- our land, our place, the local.” Lucy Lippard.
The exhibition will feature work by artists who have this perspective on the local both contemporary and historical. Artists will include; Barrie Cooke, Seamus McGuinness, Tom Molloy, Deirdre O’Mahony, Jim Vaughan and others.
Rural Vernacular is curated by Fiona Woods and is the third strand in the Ground Up project . A series of temporary public artworks in rural contexts will be developed from an art research project. These works will form the basis of an on-site symposium as part of the conference.
The rural, far from the empty landscape of tourist brochures, is a contested zone in which a complex matrix of perspectives is at work. Socio-economic change, climate change, ecological realities and the post-CAP agricultural situation demand a radical re-thinking of the rural. It is crucial that this be recognised as a cultural [as well as economic] issue. As such, it requires that a new discourse be developed by cultural practitioners and grassroots participants in the rural dynamic.
“The conventional notion of the rural as a 'marginal' or minor cultural discourse needs to be challenged, re-positioning the rural as a new intellectual site and critical impulse from which to construct a new cultural discourse about social, economic and environmental change in the context of sustainability.” Ian Hunter, Littoral Arts Trust.
Rural Vernacular will bring together artists from a number of countries – Ireland, Hungary, Switzerland, Russia - whose work takes the form of socially-engaged art practice. This type of practice is of particular interest in the rural context because of the way it engenders debate, empowers other people and shifts the focus onto issues. Relating to the complex, rural context is central to the project; public art is understood as both a both a process of research and a mode of dialoguing between artists, rural communities and the wider cultural discourse.
It’s important to bring into focus for contemporary art practice the broader definitions of culture which apply in rural contexts and which must be recognised if a genuine cultural dialogue is to occur. Artists will be asked to consider rural knowledge and rural culture, and to engage with rural communities as part of their research. The resulting works will be located in rural contexts as appropriate.”
Participating artists are; Vladimir Arkhipov [RUS]; Amanda Dunsmore [IRL]; Patricia Hurl [IRL]; Tamás Kaszás [HUN]; Therry Rudin [IRL/CH].