CIRCACONTEMPORARY VISUAL CULTURE IN IRELAND NO. 130 • WINTER 2009 • E7.50 / £6.50 CIRCA 130 C A O A A O U A A R 2 CONTENTS Editorial Peter FitzGerald 15 Update 17 Feature articles Resonant ecologies…towards listening Jessica Foley 18 The suppression and realisation of the Northern Irish imagination Justin McKeown 22 When art is a dialogue: David Brancaleone in conversation with Mike Fitzpatrick about Noughties but nice at LCGA David Brancaleone 26 Letter from Helsinki John Gayer 30 King of pain/ pope of pop/ memo from Turner Tim Maul 32 The collision of things: Andrew Duggan in interview Karlyn De Jongh 35 Project The Fire of the snow Victoria McCollum 39 Reviews Belfast ISEA David Hughes 44 The Visual force Declan Long 46 Carlow VISUAL Gemma Tipton 48 Cork The Avant David Brancaleone 51 Derry Benji de Búrca Ursula Burke 53 Dublin Andre Dodds Craig Margin 55 Brian Henderson Michael Casey 57 Breaking ground Hilary Murray 59 Nicky Larkin Jessica Foley 61 Galway Galway Arts Festival Lúc Verling 63 Kinsale Kinsale Arts Week Gemma Tipton 66 Linz Ars Electronica Paul O’Brien 69 New Forest Eamon O’Kane David Trigg 71 Paris Malachi Farrell Peter FitzGerald 73 Portadown Guerrilla Girls Brian Kennedy 75 RTÉ David Farrell Stephanie McBride 77 see page 39 Editor: Peter FitzGerald For our subscription rates please visit www.recirca.com where you can subscribe online. Administration/ Advertising: Barbara Circa is concerned with visual culture. We welcome comment, proposals and written contri- Knezevic butions. Please contact the editor for more details, or consult our website www.recirca.com Opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Board: Graham Gosling (Chair), Mark Garry, Board. Circa is an equal-opportunities employer. Georgina Jackson, Isabel Nolan, John Nolan, Brian Redmond, Gemma Tipton, Tim Circa Stott, Audrey Brennan, Mary Cremin The Priory, John Lane West, Dublin 8 Ireland Contributing editors: Brian Kennedy, Luke +353 1 442 9616 Gibbons [email protected] Assistants: Niamh Dunphy, Franziska Panitz www.recirca.com Design/ layout: Circa © Circa 2009 Front cover: Amanda Coogan: Cut piece, live performance, 24 September 2009, Digital Gallery at Visual; photo Colm Hogan; cour- tesy Visual; see VISUAL review page 48 Black-and-white is the new black. To advertise with Circa, contact us on +353 1 442 9616 or [email protected] EDITORIAL Do we look good in this? Circa has There are always going to be pluses go to our website and subscribe – been going through some tough as well in difficult situations. Circa will and please recommend the same to times of late. Our advertising, a key not be alone in having to retrench and your friends and colleagues. component of our overall income, has re-analyse what its core values are. A dropped by around 80% over the last lot of frills will be disappearing from • 18 months. Just to test our wits, it has the art scene, and some of those done so in two stages – one big drop, were probably distractions; however, What about this issue? I believe it too relative stability, then once more over there have also been damaging cuts, is very rich; for once, I am going to let the edge. And in the back of our and more are on the horizon. it speak entirely for itself. minds has been the high probability of a significant cut in funding from the Perhaps the most positive, and hope- Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon. fully most enduring thing to come out of the present turmoil is a re-assess- Circa has been in continuous publica- ment of the value of the arts. In the tion for 28 years now; it is the maga- Celtic Tiger years, the arts were often zine for the analysis and promotion of treated as an add-on – a bit like an contemporary art in Ireland, and we app you’d stick on your iPhone (if you have no plans to go away. But we do happened to have one). But when the have to adapt to our changing recent blasts of cold air blew away circumstances, and the choice to the frippery and left us near-naked, print cheaply in black and white was we had to ask ourselves what we our only option. It’s a throwback to were, in essence, worth. And the the very first issue of Circa, whose surprising answer – surprising design we have in part copied here.1 because it has come from unlikely Maybe in the process, without sources, including many in the busi- seeking it, we’ll acquire some radical ness world, from economists and chic. from some in government – is that our culture expresses our (admittedly To compensate for the print changes, undefined, undefinable, contradic- we have online improvements. In tory, contentious, multifaceted) particular, if you subscribe to the print essence, that our essence is our or PDF version of this magazine you culture, and that the rest of the world also get an ‘image supplement’ – lots seems to like us that way. With this more visuals to accompany what you take on culture gradually gaining see in the magazine, and in glorious ground, more and more people seem colour. to be getting behind the notion that cutting funding to culture would be It’s time to thank our supporters, but the greatest folly at the moment, it’s hard to know where to begin – because cultural production is our with the readers who ultimately make greatest asset.2 the undertaking worthwhile, with the two Arts Councils who fund us and Governments govern in unpre- who have been of great support, with dictable ways, and it would be under- our individual subscribers whose standable if the Republic’s present support we couldn’t do without, with government felt utterly mithered. We our institutional subscribers who all need government funding, but we make the magazine available to a can’t rely on it. As we head into the 1 In this regard, I am very sorry to lose large audience, or with the advertis- next phase in 2010, we are most the design skills of Peter Maybury. I ers past and present who have likely going to thrown back more on never knew how he would make the believed in what we’re up to? There our own resources; those are very magazine look until the PDF proofs are some advertisers in this issue, rich. came in; permanent freshness. and we are very grateful to them; 2 The Indecon report to the Arts Council/ there are many others, though, who • An Chomhairle Ealaíon, just published, would have liked to be advertising provides an invaluable overview of the here but who just can’t at the moment Can you help Circa at this time? financial importance of the arts to the economy of the Republic of Ireland. – these are very tough times for the Yes, simply: you’re probably a See the Arts Council website – visual-arts infrastructure in general. subscriber already, but if not, please www.artscouncil.ie UPDATE Visual opens Street in Dublin in 2006, and one sits at • Cristina Bunello – whose work the main visitor entrance to the Irish featured on the cover of the last issue A stunning new art space has opened in Museum of Modern Art. of Circa – has won this year’s Peter Carlow – Visual. The huge main exhibi- O’Kane Solo Exhibition at Cavanacor tion area is surrounded by further Gallery Award. galleries, such that the venue can cater Arts petition for larger- or smaller-scale works. Visual is run by Carissa Farrell, formerly More than 10,000 people have signed Ulster Museum reopens of Draíocht in Blanchardstown. In this the petition of the National Campaign issue we carry an assessment by for the Arts. The campaign has these The Ulster Museum in Belfast reopened Gemma Tipton of both the new building objectives: in October after a protracted closure for itself and its first shows; see page 50. • Maintenance of current levels of refurbishment. It now boasts a suite of funding to the Arts Council; nine adjoining art galleries, some of • Retention of Culture Ireland, the which are hosting a major retrospective Four closes agency for the promotion of Irish arts of the work of Sean Scully (which runs worldwide; until February 2010). The museum Four Gallery in Dublin has closed. Over • Retention of the Irish Film Board, houses a great deal of material, includ- the past years of its existence Four has development agency of the Irish film ing fascinating collections of artefacts had 35 shows involving a total of 91 industry; dating back thousands of years. artists. Lee Welch, its former director, • Retention of the artists’ income tax plans to “facilitate events with a shift exemption scheme; towards projects, extending from my • Commitment to retain the arts portfolio Errata own practice.” at cabinet as part of a senior ministe- rial portfolio. Apologies to reviewer Rosa Lleó in the The fate of the arts in the Republic of last issue of Circa; there was a series of Edward Delaney passes Ireland depend very much on the very odd typos and repetitions in her government’s budget, due 9 December. text, which we should have spotted. Edward Delaney, one of Ireland’s best- known sculptors, passed away in September. Winners Delaney was born in Mayo in 1930. He • Niall de Buitléar has won the fourth studied at the National College of Art annual Wexford Arts Centre and Design, but also in Munich, Bonn Emerging Visual Artist Award. The and Rome. His works are among the award carries with it a 5,000 most prominently situated in Dublin – payment and a solo exhibition at including the Thomas Davis memorial Wexford Arts Centre.