PhotoIreland Festival 2022: Opening the Gates
PhotoIreland Festival 2022:
On the History and Practice of Photography in Ireland
Launch: 6pm 7 July 2022
Running: 8 July—28 August 2022
Professional Weekend: 15—17 July 2022
Location: The Printworks, Dublin Castle
Hours: Monday-Sunday 10am-5pm
Website: 2022.photoireland.org
Facebook: /PhotoIreland.org
Twitter: / @PhotoIreland
Instagram: @photoireland
Under the title Opening The Gates, the 13th edition of PhotoIreland Festival presents over 280 artists in the most comprehensive overview on the History and Practice of Photography in Ireland to date, running 7th July to 28th August 2022 in various locations, with the main venue at The Printworks, Dublin Castle.
The main exhibition Images Are All We Have traces the thematic development of the discipline and contextualises the historical background, bringing together the diverse and socially engaged set of contemporary art practices that define Irish Photography today. This survey exhibition on the discipline involves artists spanning several generations, practices, and backgrounds, and will include video installations by Alan Butler and Eamonn Doyle, alongside a screening room presenting a schedule of video works. The works presented include those of this year’s RADAR artists — the Research and Development Artist Residency initiated by PhotoIreland and Inspirational Arts — drawing from all Photography degrees of Ireland, from Diploma to MA, showcases photographic projects by five recent graduates: Ayesha Ahmad (IADT), Daniel Breen (TUS), Gareth Byrne (NCAD), Ryan Allen (UUB), and Sarah Navan (GCD).
The extensive presentation is accompanied by an exhibition On the Irish Photobook, a reading room providing the broadest presentation of Irish photobooks, drawn from the PhotoIreland Collection as much as others both public and private.
PhotoIreland frames this ambitious exhibition within the second instalment of the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland — a public-facing research project run by PhotoIreland since 2019 that aims to investigate the ideal prototype space to actively engage with Visual Culture and Critical Thinking today. Spread across a generous 2000m², visitors can access a set of exhibitions and video installations introducing many works, some well-known and some never exhibited before, while tracing a history that sees the transformation of a technology into a fully matured artistic practice.
Four more exhibitions complement the offer: the New Irish Works group show and three solo exhibitions premiering new work by Daragh Soden, Letizia Lopreiato, and Brian Magee.
The triennial project New Irish Works returns for a fourth edition with selected works by Audrey Gillespie, Bryony Dunne, Cian Burke, Jialin Long, Mark Duffy, Martin Cregg, Martin Seeds, Pauline Rowan, Róisín White, and Shia Conlon. The project invites an international jury to identify and select ten notable works, aiming to represent and promote the growing diversity of contemporary photographic practices in Ireland.
Daragh Soden’s Ladies & Gentlemen brings to public view for the first time a new body of work by the Dublin born artist in Rathfarnham Castle; it is a subversive series of large format portraits that raises questions around gender roles, photographer-subject relationships and the performativity of identity. Letizia Lopreiato presents The Timelapse – From the Front, a pansensorial installation, depicting the artist’s journey of acceptance of her own visual impairment through art. In his latest work, Brian Magee offers a thoughtful glimpse to his daughter’s struggle getting to grips with life’s finite nature and its everyday challenges.
The Library Project will present work by Eamonn Doyle and celebrate the launch of his new book, TWO, for July and August. The work is coming directly from the Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, where it was presented in 2019 under the curation of Niall Sweeney, a long-time collaborator of Doyle.
The Critical Academy provides a series of Think Tanks looking at historical developments from Photo History to Arts practice, researching a Photography museum of the 21st century, investigating Empathy in Photography, and strengthening the sector with conversations around Artists rights. All this alongside engaging talks, curatorial and artists tours, and many other events.
During the festival, OVER Journal will reveal its long time coming new online presence. The event will inform of new developments and updated strategies as much as share tips for submissions, and a programme of events will be announced.
In producing this edition, PhotoIreland has consulted and collaborated with many key individuals, organisations, archives and repositories. Together, they constitute the broad and rich ecosystem that supports Photography in Ireland. Works exhibited in the festival include those loaned from collections of the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Butler Gallery, Crawford Gallery, Green on Red Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Newry and Mourne Museum, Office of Public Works, SO Fine Art Editions, The CAIN Archive, University College Cork, National Museums Northern Ireland, the private collection of David Kronn amongst other private collectors.
The rather unusual inward look of this edition of Ireland’s international Photography festival brings together PhotoIreland’s ongoing research on the subject initiated in 2017, and it celebrates the discipline and all its agents, from the artists to the organisations involved. A new online resource will provide unlimited access to the research.
As each year, the Open Programme and Featured Exhibitions accompany the festival’s main programme. The annual Open Programme offers artists, photographers, curators, and other organisations the opportunity to put forward events and join the festival celebrations. Without any requirement to fit a theme, it is a chance to discover and showcase a wide variety of practices developing in Ireland. With Featured Exhibitions, we aim to highlight and celebrate the work of fellow organisations who work hard year-round at promoting Photography within the context of their own programmes.
About PhotoIreland
PhotoIreland is dedicated to stimulating a critical dialogue around Photography in Ireland, and to internationally promoting the work of Irish-based artists. PhotoIreland cultivates, supports, rewards, and showcases contemporary visual arts practices.
Over the last decade, PhotoIreland has become a key constituent of the Visual Arts in Ireland, offering from Dublin an annual festival dedicated to Photography, running a cultural hub in buzzing Temple Bar, and developing constructive channels with a strong network of organisations worldwide. Through these networks, PhotoIreland creates cultural exchanges internationally, promoting relentlessly the works of Irish artists around the world, actively seeking to be present in key festivals, fairs, and becoming the main voice for Contemporary Photography from Ireland. Indeed, it is not by chance PhotoIreland is the only Irish organisation invited as founding member to Parallel Platform and Futures Photography – already a member of 3 EU co-funded projects. Alongside this work, The Library Project, a space that started as a photobook library, has now become a busy Art bookshop focused on visual culture and critical thinking, stocking publications brought to Ireland from all over the world, presented alongside exhibitions and events in its productive gallery space.
The Library Project is a venue run by PhotoIreland since September 2013 at its present address. Far more than an Art bookshop, a specialised photobook library, and a gallery, The Library Project is a cultural hub, multidisciplinary in its approach, and focused on Photography. The space offers visitors an open door to discover local and international contemporary Art practices through a careful selection of publications, and a variety of exhibitions and events.
Director: Ángel Luis González Fernández
General Manager: Julia Gelezova
Researcher & Arts Administrator: Ashleigh Wilson
The Library Project Manager: Rita Hynes
On the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland
Since 2019, PhotoIreland has been preparing an ambitious 5 years programme at The Printworks, Dublin Castle, with the kind support of OPW, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council.
In Autumn 2017, PhotoIreland started specific research around Photography in Ireland, a project part of the Critical Academy. The aim of the research is to publicly define, evaluate, and reflect on the current situation of the practice and all the elements that affect it, sharing results and recommendations along the way, and proposing benchmarked improvements.
The Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland is part of that practice based research, specifically aiming to create the ideal prototype space to actively engage with Visual Culture and Critical Thinking today. Instead of replicating old museum models and structures that have demonstrated to be problematic, PhotoIreland proposes a public investigation to creatively define a unique model that truly engages with the complexities of the 21st century, in addition to those related to the discipline. The research sets an important departure towards a new arena where Art and cultural practices and their socio-political context can be both enjoyed and examined in a richly participatory way, with the use of contemporary methodologies.
This first iteration of the Museum project launched on Thursday 4th July 2019 at The Printworks in Dublin Castle as a temporary event for the month of July, with the kind support of The Office of Public Works (OPW). However, from 2022 to 2025, the museum will present at the same location every July an evolving model, openly investigating experimental and critical propositions in aspects relating to museology, curation, cultural policy and Arts management. This four-years cycle aims to present ambitious exhibitions that will set the legacy of what the museum aims to become.
If you would like to find out more about the project, the programme for 2022-2025, please contact PhotoIreland Director, Ángel Luis González at [email protected]
