Venus Patel, ‘Still from Daisy: Prophet of the Apocalypse’ (2023). Courtesy of the Artist
An ambitious new group exhibition, Staying with the Trouble, inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s seminal work of the same name, opens at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) on Friday 2 May 2025. The exhibition features over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time.
Pushing against social norms, Staying with the Trouble challenges us and attempts to make sense of the present, questioning interspecies relationships, ideas of transformation, and renewal. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.
The exhibition follows Haraway’s propositions such as “Making Kin”, “Composting” and “Sowing Worlds”, inviting visitors to rethink their connections with humans, animals, and ecosystems. Other propositions include “Critters”, emphasising the agency of non-human life, while “Techno-Apocalypse” critiques dystopian views on technology, proposing a more nuanced, interconnected future.
Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “Staying with the Trouble is a call to rethink, reshape our views — to stay present in complexity, to unlearn human-centric ways of seeing, and to lean into the radical potential of kinship across species, materials, and worlds. This exhibition is both a provocation and an invitation — to reimagine our place in a shared, entangled future.”
There will be a screening programme of film and moving image works as part of Living Canvas at IMMA, running throughout May to September.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a live performance series on Saturday 26 July 2025.
Artists featured in the exhibition include Farouk858, Kian Benson Bailes, George Bolster, Renèe Helèna Browne, Myrid Carten, Elizabeth Cope, Redd Ekks, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Andy Fitz, Laura Fitzgerald, Marie Foley, Paddy Graham, Aoibheann Greenan, Kerry Guinan, Austin Hearne, Atsushi Kaga, Michael Kane, Sam Keogh, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Diaa Langan, Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde, Marielle MacLeman, Alan Magee, Christopher Mahon, Michelle Malone, Colin Martin, Maria McKinney, Bea McMahon, Thaís Muniz, Bridget O’Gorman, Venus Patel, Samir Mahmood, Alice Rekab, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Sonia Shiel, Katie Watchorn, Luke van Gelderen, amongst others.
Staying with the Trouble
2 May – 21 September 2025
Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage: Staying with the Trouble
IMMA TALK
Preview Artists’ Conversation: Staying with the Trouble Thurs 1 May 2025 / 5.00pm – 6.15pm / Lecture Room, IMMA
Join us for the exhibition preview and artists’ conversation with special guests whose work is part of Staying with the Trouble. Artists speaking include Laura Fitzgerald, Eoghan Ryan, Jacqui Shelton, Marie Foley, and Atsushi Kaga. Moderated by Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA. Admission free, book online
EARTH RISING 2025 The EARTH RISING festival (12 – 14 September 2025) will align with Staying with the Trouble guided by Haraway’s concept of “making kin”—collaborating across species and communities.
Epic new work by Irish artist Clare Langan headlines Living Canvas at IMMA Programme.
Annie Fletcher, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Clare Langan, artist, Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, of IPUT Real Estate, and Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA. Photo: Sasko Lazarov, Photocall Ireland
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, are excited to launch the Spring/Summer programme of Living Canvas at IMMA, Europe’s largest digital art screen on the grounds of IMMA. The programme launches from today (Friday 11 April, 2025) with the premiere of Irish artist Clare Langan’s epic new film work Alchemy, 2023.
In the aftermath of a pandemic and a time of numerous climate crises, Clare Langan’s Alchemy symbolises an alchemical change that is necessary for the human species and the planet to survive. This sensory-rich film of provoking visuals and original music takes the viewer through a journey of narrative transformation and revolution. The visuals are shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan and artist Clare Langan, with an original score by Gyða Valtýsdóttir and soundscape by Daniel Goddard. Alchemy will be shown until 23 April and will form part of the museum’s celebration of Earth Day on 22 April.
In May, to coincide with a major display from IMMA’s Permanent Collection called Art as Agency,Living Canvas at IMMA will screen highlights from the IMMA Collection moving image works featuring artist Maïa Nunes, followed by Duncan Campbell, and Deirdre O’Mahony, amongst others.
To celebrate Pride 2025, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor’s film work laying fire (2022), an experimental memory work on intimacy will be screened in June. This will be followed across the summer months with screenings by artists Ammar Bouras, Pádraic Barrett, Marion Bergin, Sarah Browne, Linda Brownlee, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Ahree Lee, Susan Thomson, and Sweat Variant (Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born). The summer programme will also include one-off film screenings on selected Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm from 19 June to 28 August.
In September to coincide with EARTH RISING, IMMA’s festival dedicated to sparking climate conversations, Living Canvas at IMMA will screen a thought provoking film programme including works by artists Telu Von Flap, Martina O’ Brien, Tina Claffey, Simone Kessler, Aoife Desmond, Linda Schirmer, Stijn Ank, Tanya de Paor, Denis Buckley, Una Walker, Anna Korbut, Zoë Uí Fhaolain, and Paul Hallahan.
Local, national, and international creative partnerships are central to the Living Canvas at IMMA programme. These range from Dublin International Film Festival and art and technology’s Beta Festival, to collaborations further afield including the Jarman Award, London, and BIENALSUR, the International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America.
IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts, has successfully presented Living Canvas, at two of its buildings in Dublin’s city centre since 2021. The Living Canvas large-scale outdoor public art screen, now located on IMMA’s front lawn for two years allowing visitors and the wider community to enjoy a vibrant programme of artworks by Irish and international artists in IMMA’s beautiful surroundings.
Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, of IPUT Real Estate, commenting on the launch said “As a long-term investor in Dublin, IPUT Real Estate is committed to creating a space for culture in and around our buildings. We want to ensure Dublin remains an attractive and vibrant place to work and live. In this regard, we provide artists with spaces to create work, and to platform that work to the city. We are very proud of our Living Canvas initiative that to date has displayed the work of 120 artists and 100 individual art and literary works. We are excited to see Living Canvas at IMMA, and we are proud to support the work of the museum.”
Mary Cremin, Head of Programming at IMMA said “Living Canvas has enlivened the IMMA’s grounds, providing a welcoming space for visitors to delve into a captivating film programme in their own time. The partnership with IPUT Real Estate has opened new opportunities for the museum to collaborate with and support festivals across Ireland and bring international screenings to new audiences at IMMA.”
11 April 2025
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For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Caroline Kennedy E: [email protected] T: 086 2449805
Additional notes for Editors
Living Canvas at IMMA webpage – Living Canvas at IMMA – IMMA Screens daily from Monday to Sunday from 9.30am to 6.30pm.
About IPUT Real Estate Dublin
IPUT Real Estate is Ireland’s leading property investment company and visionary supporter of the arts Owner of 70 buildings in many of Dublin’s city centre neighbourhoods, IPUT is committed to positively shaping the public realm and to supporting arts and culture within the city. Across its portfolio, IPUT supports and showcase Irish artists and creators – commissioning sculptures, paintings and installations that stimulate and sustain the occupiers of its buildings and those who live, work, and socialise in the neighbourhoods in which those buildings are located.
About Living Canvas
IPUT Real Estate launched Living Canvas in 2021 as a spectacular presentation of public art using giant outdoor screens at two of its sites in Dublin’s city centre: Wilton Park off Baggot Street, and at the Tropical Fruit Warehouse on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2. The custom designed screens debuted the works of leading Irish and international artists produced in partnership with leading cultural institutions the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). Over the course of two years, Living Canvas featured the work of more than 120 artists and presented close to 100 individual art and literary works.
About IMMA
Founded in 1991, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art located in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Its vibrant, bold, and diverse programme comprises exhibitions, commissions, and event-based projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme which together provides audiences of all ages the opportunity to connect with contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is also the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of nearly 4,000 artworks by Irish and international artists. IMMA makes this national resource available through exhibitions at IMMA and other venues nationally and internationally, engagement and learning programmes and digital resources.
Art as Agency heralds a new role for the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, TD, pictured with Ali Curran, Chair of IMMA and Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections, IMMA at the launch of a major new display of the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art called Art as Agency featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present.
Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan T.D. launched (Wednesday 26 February 2025) a major new display of the National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Art as Agency is a landmark exhibition, featuring over 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present, including many recent acquisitions.
Art as Agency marks a significant shift in IMMA’s approach, moving away from fast-paced exhibition turnover to a more considered long-term model. Running for three years, this exhibition underscores IMMA’s commitment to sustainability by reducing the impact of frequent installations while fostering deeper public engagement with the National Collection.
Since its foundation in 1991, IMMA has been at the forefront of contemporary art in Ireland, producing dynamic and ambitious exhibitions. Under its strategy 2024-2028 ‘A Creative Catalyst for Change’, IMMA is embracing its role as a ‘modern museum’, creating a space for critical reflection and public engagement. By adopting long-term permanent collection displays, IMMA is not only expanding access to the National Collection but also shaping a more sustainable model of museum programming.
IMMA’s Collection has grown significantly since 2020, now comprising over 4,500 artworks, thanks to support from the Department of Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport. As part of an increasingly research-focused curatorial approach, IMMA is also acquiring key archives of artists, curators and theorists, providing valuable insights into shifts in artistic practice and the wider political and social contexts in which these works were created.
Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Donovan said: “It is encouraging to see how IMMA is using our National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art to produce research-led exhibitions. These pieces tell social, political, and environmental stories that resonate with audiences here and all over the world. The introduction of long-term displays of the Collection will mean more people will get a chance to visit this important public resource. It gives more time and opportunities for audiences to delve deeper into how they consider these pieces. This complements my priority, as Minister, to facilitate and enhance public access to and engagement with culture.”
Christina Kennedy, Head of Collections at IMMA, said: “By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, Art as Agency is a true celebration of the growth of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art over the past 30 years. I am delighted that we can show so many of the significant works in the Collection, many of which are recent acquisitions and have not been seen by the public before.”
ENDS For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957
IMMA Collection: Art as Agency Now until 6 February 2028
Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage:IMMA Collection: Art as Agency
IMMA Talk IMMA Collection: Art as Agency Thursday 27 February at 4pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie
Join Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Head of Collections at IMMA, for an engaging lecture on IMMA Collection: Art as Agency. This talk is followed by the opening of the exhibition. A recording of this talk is available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel. Places are limited for this talk.
Leola Pettway and Qunnie Pettway working at the Freedom Quilting Bee, 1972. Copyright Mary McCarthy. Courtesy of Souls Grown Deep. Courtesy of Souls Grown Deep
A new exhibition of quilts made by the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, a group of African American women with a 200-year tradition of quilt making, opens at IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, on Friday 28 February 2025, co-organised with Souls Grown Deep. Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend follows the legacy and familial traditions of quilt making that have existed in Gee’s Bend, a remote river island community in Alabama dating from the 19th century.
The quilts are a testament to resilience, community, and a legacy woven through generations. Passed down primarily from mother to daughter, the tradition of quilt making flourished within a tight-knit community grappling with the enduring legacy of slavery, oppression and the fight for civil rights. The women of Gee’s Bend have created quilts that hold both artistic and political significance. Artistically, their work is renowned for its improvisational style, bold colours, and abstract designs, often compared to modernist art movements like abstract expressionism. The quilts, made from recycled fabrics, are deeply rooted in African American textile traditions and showcase unique creativity in geometric patterns.
Politically, the quilts reflect resilience and self-sufficiency, as they were born out of necessity in an economically deprived, racially segregated region. Imbued with a deep connection to the land, their ancestors and geography, each stitch is a poignant reminder of the struggles and triumphs of a community that persevered through adversity.
Commenting on the exhibition Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA, said; “The quilts of Gee’s Bend transcend mere craft; they are powerful social and historical documents. They offer a critical counter-narrative to dominant art historical discourse, challenging the traditional hierarchies that often exclude the voices of marginalised communities. Kith & Kin is the first in a series of exhibitions at IMMA this year that will explore the use of textiles in art making”.
While the artistry of Gee’s Bend has been exhibited in museums worldwide, Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend marks the first time the quilts have been shown in Ireland. The exhibition concentrates on the connection between mother and daughter and the intergenerational relationships seen in the different styles, patterns and colours. The significance of storytelling through the quilts is an important part of the making, with the quilts serving as both a celebration of African American heritage and a testament to the strength and creativity of women in the face of systemic oppression. This exhibition aims to recognise their invaluable contribution to art, and to ensure that their legacy continues to inspire and enrich future generations.
– ENDS – For media inquiries, please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] T: 086 2010023 Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] T: 086 2009957 Additional Information
Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend 28 February – 27 October 2025 Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm Webpage: Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend
IMMA Talk The Ties that Bind: Community and Artistry in the Quilts of Gee’s Bend A lecture by Raina Lampkins-Fielder Thursday 27 February at 5pm / Johnston Suite, IMMA / Booking required on imma.ie
Raina Lampkins-Fielder, Chief Curator for Souls Grown Deep, presents a talk on the unique quilt making tradition of Gee’s Bend. This talk is followed by the opening of Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.
A recording of this talk will be made available to listen back to on IMMA’s SoundCloud channel. Places are limited for this talk.
About Souls Grown Deep
Souls Grown Deep (SGD) advocates the artistic recognition and empowerment of Black artists from the American South, promoting visibility, scholarship, and education about their contributions to art history and fostering economic development and racial and social justice in their communities. Founded in 2010, the organization derives its name from a 1921 poem by Langston Hughes (1901-67) titled The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the last line of which is “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
Souls Grown Deep stewards the foremost collection of works by Black artists from the Southern United States, and advances recognition for artists through collection transfers, research, loans, exhibitions, education, public programs, and publications. More than 500 works from SGD’s collection have been acquired by over 40 museums in the U.S. and around the globe, creating new opportunities for public access and scholarship. A leading voice for equitable practices in the art world, SGD works collaboratively with artists and communities to advance their stated needs and goals through support for the creative economy, intellectual property rights, fair compensation models, economic and political empowerment, and values-aligned investing. For more information, please visit soulsgrowndeep.org.
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, today (30 January 2025) announced highlights of its 2025 programme, opening with a major three-year display celebrating IMMA’s Permanent Collection titled IMMA Collection: Art as Agency, that showcases over 100 artists from the 1960s to the present, highlighting key works including many recent acquisitions. Through thematic, chronological, geographical, and media-based approaches, Art as Agency examines how artworks connect across time and contexts, fostering new interpretations and relevance. By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, the exhibition invites audiences to reflect on the evolving meanings and possibilities of art in shaping our understanding of and action in the world. Opening on 6 February this ambitious exhibition will invite engagement and research, allowing for a rich durational experience of Ireland’s Modern and Contemporary Art Collection.
Commenting on the 2025 programme, Director of IMMA Annie Fletcher said: “In 2025, IMMA is proud to be placing the permanent Collection at the forefront of the museum. By investing in significant semi-permanent displays of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, we hope to allow the public time to delve into the pivotal artworks that have shaped contemporary practice. This will complement an exceptional exhibition programme punctuated by unmissable experiential performances. Creative interventions as part of Dwell Here, Living Canvas at IMMA, Summer at IMMA, and EARTH RISING will animate the grounds to provide our visitors with remarkable experiences that we hope will bring them back to IMMA time and time again”.
Central to the 2025 exhibition programme is an exploration of artists working with textiles, two of which share connections to Ireland. IMMA is presenting solo exhibitions of their work in Ireland for the first time. The first exhibition, opening on 28 February, features the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, a group of African American women from a small Alabama community with a 150-year tradition of quilt-making. Their quilts are both artistically and politically significant, rising to prominence during the Civil Rights Movement as symbols of Black empowerment and cultural pride. These works are deeply rooted in family, heritage and the history of their community.
Opening on 13 June IMMA presents a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933 – 2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation. Emerging in the mid-1960s, his canonical ‘Drape’ paintings merged painting, sculpture, and performance in conversation with architecture in entirely new ways. Suspending unstretched lengths of painted canvas from the walls or ceilings of exhibition spaces, Gilliam transformed his medium and the contexts in which it was viewed. Following an influential artist residency in Ireland in Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in the early 1990s, he continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Gilliam’s work in Ireland fostered an intuitive dialogue with the surrounding environment, celebrating the physicality of painting and the emotional resonance of place through abstraction and materiality.
In the Autumn IMMA presents a solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña titled Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey,opening on 7 November. This groundbreaking presentation delves into themes of ancestry, ecological urgency, and the interconnectedness of humanity, inspired by Vicuña’s discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland and the poetic resonance of her return journey from the Andes to Ireland. The exhibition draws on her 2006 visit to Ireland, during which she and her partner, James O’Hern, honoured Ireland’s archaeological sites with rituals of gratitude. This connection becomes a narrative thread within the exhibition, intertwining personal memory, indigenous traditions, and a dialogue with Irish heritage. Vicuña, whose multidisciplinary practice bridges visual art, poetry, sound, and performance, will transform IMMA’s galleries with a dynamic suite of new works. Central to the exhibition is a site-specific quipu—an ancient Andean system of communication using knotted cords – created with local makers. The commission is a reference to the design of Aran sweater that is thought to be symbolic of nature, the sea and the lives of the fisherman and Islanders.
Other highlights in 2025 include Staying with the Trouble,an exhibition opening on 2 May of over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time. Staying with the Trouble is inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s germinal work of the same name. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.
Alongside the exhibition programme live performances will be presented throughout the year in the newly reopened North Wing of IMMA. A new live performance by Isabel Nolan and Belinda Quirke, The Hum of Earth’s Uneven Breath, will take place in the Baroque Chapel on 13 March. Created in response to the current exhibition Take a Breath Nolan and Quirke explore embodied, cosmological and spiritual breath through deep time using sound improvisation, spoken word and voice. Other performances in 2025 include Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in June, and as part of the Staying with the Troubleexhibition, a series of live performances on 26 July.
IMMA is also proud to announce the 2025 screening programme for Living Canvas at IMMA, a partnership between IMMA and IPUT Real Estate, Dublin’s leading property investment company and supporter of the arts, that brings Europe’s largest digital art screen to the grounds of IMMA. The programme opens with the screening of Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation, 1985. This is followed by a partnership with the RDS Visual Art Awards presenting a specially curated programme by past Visual Art Awards artists. Later in the year screenings will feature work by artists Bruce Conner, Sweat Variant, Clare Langan and Aideen Barry, amongst others, together with partnerships with Dublin International Film Festival and Beta Festival.
This Summer IMMA’s popular programme, Summer at IMMA, will return with a vibrant programme of free events, exhibitions, artist performances, screenings, talks, workshops and tours, running from June to August.
EARTH RISING returns to IMMA in 2025 as a vibrant festival of art, ecology, and ideas. Running from 12 to 14 September, alongside the Staying with the Trouble exhibition, the festival will spark transformative climate conversations and actions through immersive cultural experiences. This year’s theme, “Making Kin,” invites audiences to explore meaningful connections — with each other, the natural world, and the urgent challenges of our time. Expect thought-provoking installations, interactive workshops, and inspiring voices that merge creativity with climate action, offering fresh perspectives and a space for collective imagination.
IMMA’s Engagement & Learning programme is central to the museum and in 2025 it will deliver many new initiatives.
The launch of a new residency Dwell Here that will support research and engagement with more than 20 residents in 2025. Six practices will have year-long opportunities at IMMA and all other residents will participate in one month residencies organised around a series of Research Intensives. Selected artists include Eoghan Ryan (IE), Crystal Bennes (UK/USA), Colm Keady-Tabbal (IE/LB), Sarah Pierce (US/IE), Amanda Dunsmore (UK/IE), Seamus Nolan (IE), Olga Micińska (PO), Slinko (US/UA), Renèe Helèna Browne (IE), and Angelina Radaković (UK), with more artists to be announced.
An international Summer School, Landscape and Conflict, organised by IMMA and the National College of Art and Design as part of the L’Internationale project Museum of the Commons will take place in Dublin and Belfast from 7 to 11 July 2025.
Engagement Hub: Art in Action is a new unique training programme to empower racialised and ethnic diverse artists to develop their practice towards engagement with younger audiences. This project, created by IMMA and Superprojects, is funded by the Ireland against Racism Fund 2024 by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Art for All: Inclusive Family Workshop is a new programme that creates pathways for families seeking asylum into IMMA’s existing Explorer Family Workshops. IMMA has teamed up with artist Olga Vnukova and the Liberties Community Project as part of Dublin City Council’s pilot grant scheme aimed at delivering meaningful and impactful programmes in local settings.
IMMA Perspectives: A Creative Encounter is a partnership between IMMA, Dublin City Council and neurodivergent artists, Jody O’Neill and Dee Roycroft working towards creating a Dublin where neurodivergent people can fully participate in and enjoy cultural experiences. The programme will see selected professional neurodivergent artists participate in a facilitated encounter through bespoke workshops and seminars.
Please click on the links below to read more about the individual exhibitions and programmes:
Hamad Butt, Familiar Part 3, Cradle, 1992, chlorine, glass, steel wire, Display dimensions variable, Tate, Presented by Jamal Butt 2015.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan and raised in London, Hamad Butt was British South Asian, Muslim, and queer. A contemporary of the Young British Artists, critics described him as epitomizing the new ‘hazardism’ in art; his poignant and severe work is emotive yet austere. Before his AIDS-related death in 1994, aged 32, Butt completed and showed four major sculptural installations, which forged new encounters between art and science in the time of AIDS. He also left behind videos, writings, drawings, paintings and plans for new installations; and was a pioneer of intermedia art, sculptural installation, sci-art and queer diasporic art.
Butt belongs to a group of British artists – most famously Derek Jarman (subject of a 2019 IMMA retrospective) – who responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Unlike Jarman however, Butt’s art did so in a non-militant way, dealing with the subject matter through subtle inferences to sex and death, an approach which connects his work to major international figures like Felix González-Torres, who similarly used a more minimal sculptural vocabulary.
Butt’s most iconic works, Transmission (1990) and the three-part series Familiars (1992), have never been shown together. None of his works has ever been shown outside the UK. Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is the first retrospective exhibition of Butt’s work and it seeks to correct the ways his work has been overlooked in British and international histories of contemporary art. It brings together Butt’s extant works, including the four major installations and supplementary parts, including the reconstruction of a destroyed work (a cabinet inhabited by live flies); schematic drawings, sketches and written notes from his archive; previously unseen (or rarely shown) paintings, etchings and works on paper; and a videotaped interview with the artist.
Butt’s works imply physical risk or endangerment: in Transmission, the threatening image of a triffid (a literary harbinger of blindness and mass extinction) is visible if one dons protective glasses to screen out the harmful ultraviolet light; in Familiars, we encounter chemicals that can heal us (they are disinfectants), but that irritate, burn, blind or kill if unleashed. He summons the fear of injury and contamination as analogies, perhaps, for the threat of disease and contagion (including that of HIV/AIDS), for mortality, or for airborne disasters – of climate emergency or of war. He also invokes the perceived threat of the racial, religious, or national outsider, through references to Christian and Islamic iconology, and to religious, spiritual, or hermetic orders of knowledge, such as the Islamic history of alchemy. His invocations of the end of the world are redolent in our own contaminated present – blighted (still) by pandemics, looming environmental disaster, migrant crises, and terror from the air.
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is a retrospective exhibition developed in collaboration between IMMA and Whitechapel Gallery, London. The exhibition restages the Familiars, and Transmission sculpture series, along with paintings, drawings, and archive materials that contextualise his practice. The exhibition is curated by Dominic Johnson, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London, and co-curated with Seán Kissane and Gilane Tawadros. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with Jamal Butt and the Estate of Hamad Butt.
The accompanying exhibition catalogue is edited by Dominic Johnson and features a comprehensive survey essay (the first of its kind), and new commissioned essays by scholars, curators, conservators and artists including Alice Correia, Seán Kissane, Steve Kurtz, Adrian Rifkin and others. It is the first significant book-length study of the work of Hamad Butt. The catalogue is published by Prestel and supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Price €35 from the IMMA Shop.
Commenting on the exhibition, Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director said; “We are thrilled to work with Whitechapel Art Gallery, Dominic Johnson, and Jamal Butt, to realise this long-overdue retrospective of Hamad Butt. Building on our series of exhibitions that has revisited and revised the art of the 1990s, including The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now and Derek Jarman: Protest!, this exhibition reveals how other, truly significant, histories of the ‘90s and HIV/AIDS, can enrich our understanding of that time, and also provide a more complex and diverse lineage for the art of the present moment.”
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.
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For further information and images please contact:
Title: Hamad Butt: Apprehensions Exhibition Dates: 06 Dec 2024–05 May 2025 Museum Opening Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm
Bank Holiday Mondays: 12noon – 5.30pm
IMMA TALKS Preview Curators’ Panel Discussion Thurs 5 Dec, 5.00 – 6.20pm, Johnston Suite, IMMA
Dominic Johnson, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London, Gilane Tawadros, Director, Whitechapel Gallery in a moderated discussion with Seán Kissane, Curator, Exhibitions, IMMA.
Admission free, booking essential. Book here.
About Hamad Butt
Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 and moved to live in east London with his family in 1964. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1987 to 1990, and coincided with the Young British Artists (YBA) generation, many of whom studied alongside him there. His earliest works include countless paintings and prints, which were shown in exhibitions around London and the UK from 1983-87, including at Brixton Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, South London Gallery and London Lesbian and Gay Centre. From the late 1980s, Butt developed unprecedented large-scale sculptural installations using toxic or dangerous materials. His later works were exhibited at John Hansard Gallery (Southampton), Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain), Whitechapel Gallery, Milch, Institute of Contemporary Arts (all London), Manchester Art Gallery, and elsewhere. He continued to make works on paper throughout this time. Butt died of AIDS- related complications in London in 1994, aged 32. A book on his work, Familiars, was published posthumously in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of Tate and IMMA.
Alice Maher, Helmet, 2005 Lambda print, 61 x 61 cm, featured in the David Kronn Photography Collection. Courtesy the artist.
A new exhibition, from the exceptional photography collection donated to IMMA by Dr David Kronn, opens at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Monday 28 October 2024. This display presents aselection of 130 works showcasing Dr Kronn’s longstanding commitment to building a diverse collection of photographic works for nearly 30 years.
Photography has held a lifelong fascination for Irish-born US-based collector Dr Kronn. A doctor specialising in medical genetics, his attraction to the scientific processes used in photography is not surprising. The donation contains examples of many photographic forms and media, from 19th century Daguerrotypes and albumen prints; the microphotography of Karl Blossfeldt from the 1920s; or pin-hole camera images by Adam Fuss from the 1980s.
Other themes that emerge throughout the collection include abstracted landscapes or seascapes; portraits of artists, such as August Sander’s image of Heinrich Hoerle at work in 1931; the portrait of Louise Bourgeois by Annie Leibovitz from 1997; and numerous iconic works, like Herb Ritts’s image of pop star Madonna from 1986. Irish artists showing as part of this exhibition include Alice Maher, Richard Mosse, and Ameila Stein and international photographers such as Harry Callahan who made work in Ireland in the 1970s.
Seán Kissane, Curator, IMMA said: “Currently there is no major collection of international photography collection housed in any Irish museum. Dr Kronn’s pledge to make IMMA the future home of his extensive collection, now over 1000 photographs, will position IMMA as a centre of research and a major force in the field”.
Photographers included are Slim Aarons; Berenice Abbott; Amy Arbus; Peter Arnell; Roger Ballen; Marion Belanger; Dominique Berretty; Karl Blossfeldt; Bill Brandt; Harry Callahan; Elinor Carucci; Vincent Cianni; Tillman Crane; Steve Crouch; Edward S. Curtis; William E. Davis; Michael Deines; Jack Delano; Josh Dennis; Mike Disfarmer; Doug Dubois; Dr Harold Edgerton; Alfred Ehrnhardt; Martine Franck; Gisèle Freund; Adam Fuss; Helen K. Garber; Mario Giacomelli; John Goldblatt; Mark Goodman; Pedro E. Guerrero; Philippe Halsman; Manuela Hofer; Chip Hooper; Rolfe Horn; Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard; Karel Otto Hruby; Robert Glenn Ketchum; Annie Leibovitz; Edwin Hale Lincoln; Eric Lindbloom; Alice Maher; Joel Meyerowitz; Bart Michiels; Richard Misrach; Inge Morath; Richard Mosse; Martin Munkacsi; Asako Narahashi; Simon Norfolk; Nigel Parry; Irving Penn; John Pfahl; Richard Quataert; Eugene Richards; Wynn Richards; Herb Ritts; Ron Rosenstock; Douglas Ryuije; August Sander; Paul Sepuya; Aaron Siskind; Rosalind Solomon; Frank Spadarella; Jerry Spagnoli; Jan Staller; Amelia Stein; Antanas Sutkus; Bob Thall; Terry Towery; Penelope Umbrico; Underwood; Todd Webb; Brett Weston; Ronald W. Wohlauer.
In close collaboration with the Collections Team at IMMA who are guiding the acquisition process, this is the fourth exhibition from the David Kronn Collection Donation, since 2011 IMMA has held three exhibitions from the Collection – Out of the Dark Room,Second Sight and Northern Light – showcasing over 300 works.
David Kronn Photography Collection Donation 28 October 2024 – 26 January 2025 Admission Free Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm. Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Webpage: David Kronn Collection – IMMA
IMMA Talk In-Gallery Conversation with Dr David Kronn and Seán Kissane Friday 1 November at 1.15pm / Drop-in / No booking required Join an in-gallery conversation with Dr David Kronn and IMMA curator Seán Kissane who will explore the photographers and themes in the exhibition.
About Dr David Kronn Born and brought up in Dublin, Dr David Kronn had an early interest in photography, learning to use a darkroom at his school camera club. He remained an active photographer while he was studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin and when his medical training took him to New York, this interest in photography developed into a passion for collecting pictures. Dr Kronn has shaped a collection, of over 1000 photographs, rich in content, genre and themes that encourages many readings.
Performed by Crash Ensemble, the Camille Norment Trio and vocalists from Oslo 14 Date: Thursday 24 October at 7.30pm
IMMA presents Camille Norment’s composition Sounds For New Seeds (2023) live for one-night only, Thursday 24 October, in the Great Hall at IMMA. Sounds For New Seeds is composed for an instrument and vocal ensemble that includes the rare glass harmonica, the Norwegian hardingfele, electric guitar and feedback amongst the brass and string instrumentation. The ensemble forms a ring around the audience, and for this event, the piece will be performed by Ireland’s leading new music ensemble, Crash Ensemble, members from Norment’s own core ensemble from Norway – the Camille Norment Trio – and vocalists from Oslo 14.
The performance marks the return of live events by IMMA in the Great Hall and will be the first in over six years. We are delighted to welcome audiences back into one of the most exciting spaces of the museum with Norment’s expansive work Sounds For New Seeds.
Visual artist, composer and performer Camille Norment is at home both in the world of exhibitions and music, exploring the spaces of sound and their relation to bodies, thoughts and actions. Norment’s multimedia installations explore socio-cultural and psychological phenomena through what she describes as cultural psychoacoustics, which is about how context, form, space and the viewer’s body interact in the formation of somatic and cognitive experiences.
In Norment’s work, the power of sound and music is a magic force that envelopes the listening body in its transformation of perceptions and possibilities. Sonic agency, and change through thought and action, can be as quiet as the quiver of a single butterfly on a string, or a whisper that becomes the roar of sonic feedback.
Sounds For New Seeds listens to locate and gestures to produce new seeds for the future, scattering them around and setting them to grow. The piece is not meant as sentimental but rather as impassioned, practical work through sound.
Performance details: Date: Thursday 24 October Time: 7.30pm – 8.30pm Tickets & Booking: €20 full price / €18 conc. Book online here.
Refreshments included in ticket price. Venue: Great Hall, IMMA.
A composition in six parts for instrumentation and choreography, Sounds For New Seeds was originally commissioned by Bergen International Festival 2023.
Camille Norment: Sounds For New Seeds Date: Thursday 24 October 2024 Time: 7.30-8.30pm Ticket Prices: €20 full price / €18 concession. Refreshments included in ticket price. Booking: Online booking at Camille Norment: Sounds For New Seeds – IMMA Venue: Great Hall, North Wing, IMMA Doors: Open from 7pm, performance starts at 7.30pm
Refreshments available after performance in the Johnston Suite
Camille Norment
Camille Norment’s work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at the Bergen Kunsthall (2023); Dia Art Foundation in New York (2022–23); the David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2019); the Oslo Kunstforening (2017); and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin (2017). Since her solo presentation in the Nordic Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, she has participated in the Kochi-Muziris (2016), Montreal (2016), Lyon (2017), and Thailand (2018) biennials. She has produced several permanent artwork commissions for public spaces.
Camille Norment Trio
Camille Norment Trio features artist Camille Norment on the glass harmonica, electronics and voice with musicians Vegar Vårdal on Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and Håvard Skaset on electric guitar. This unique trio of voices investigates the visceral qualities of resonance, noise, and overtone, creating music that enacts and deconstructs cultural and historical positions relevant to each of the instruments. Each of the instruments have been simultaneously revered and feared or even outlawed at various points in their histories. The sonic worlds they create resonate through a tantalising union of the instruments’ voices and their often-paradoxical cultural histories. Their performance is an organic movement between the composed and the improvised, creating a dynamic soundscape that defies a fixed genre reference. Their mysterious sonic environments hover at the meeting points of folk, rock, classical, experimental music, and more. The Camille Norment Trio has been performing internationally since is founding in 2010.
Crash Ensemble
Crash Ensemble is Ireland’s leading new music ensemble; a group of world-class musicians who play the most adventurous, ground-breaking music of today. Amazingly ordinary people doing extraordinary things – Crash is innovative, adventurous and ambitious.
Led by cellist and Artistic Director, Kate Ellis and Principal Conductor, Ryan McAdams, the ensemble commissions, collaborates, explores, investigates and experiments with a broad spectrum of music creators and artistic collaborators: ‘We love to innovate, with quality always at the heart of everything we do. We are passionate about the music we play. We create experiences; exploring new ways of presenting music and bringing our audiences on new adventures. Community for us is key – our community inspires us to create and experiment more. We value our audiences and our connection with them.’
Crash perform both in Ireland and internationally. The ensemble’s music is available on their own label, Crash Records and they have recordings on Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, NMC, Ergodos and Bedroom Community labels. Many well-known artists from diverse musical backgrounds have performed with the ensemble; Terry Reily, Gavin Friday, Dawn Upshaw, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Laurie Anderson, Lisa Hannigan, Íarla Ó Lionáird (The Gloaming), Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Sam Amidon and Beth Orton.
As well as performing throughout Ireland, Crash regularly perform internationally, with appearances in the last few years at the Edinburgh International Festival, The Royal Opera House (London), The Barbican (London), Carnegie Hall (NYC) The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC), Virginia Tech (Virginia), GAIDA Festival (Lithuania) and residencies at The Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (UK) and Princeton University (NJ).
Crash Ensemble is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland and Dublin City Council, is a resident ensemble at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland and at Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland.
Oslo 14
The vocal ensemble Oslo 14 was founded in 2014 by Elin Rosseland and fourteen singers. Today, the ensemble consists of a pool of up to 20 improvising vocalists: Gro-Marthe Dickson, Åshild Bergill Hagen, Live Foyn Friis, Petter Hauglum, Guro Eliassen Kverndokk, Hedda Hammer Myhre, Marika Schultze, Karoline Ruderaas Jerve, Sean Bell, and Bendik Sells (artistic director).
Oslo 14’s mission is to explore movement, experimentation, and improvisation. By incorporating both collective and solo improvisation elements into composed works, the ensemble aims to expand the boundaries of vocal music in choral and ensemble formats. Additionally, Oslo 14 frequently works with free improvisation, presenting several concerts each year with entirely improvised material.
Oslo 14 made its debut at nyMusikk’s Only Connect Festival in 2015, performing the commissioned work “Mass for the Witch Woman” by Susanna. Since then, the ensemble has collaborated with a wide range of Norwegian contemporary composers in developing and performing new music, including Lisa Dillan, Sofia Jernberg, Wenche Losnegård, Jessica Slighter, Ole-Henrik Giørtz, Guro Skumsnes Moe, Andreas Backer, Tone Åse, Tine Surel Lange, Eric S. Egan, and Agnes Ida Pettersen. Oslo 14 has also contributed to performances and recordings for Camille Norment’s installation at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and worked with Jøkleba for a tribute concert of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme at the Oslo Jazz Festival the same year.
Since autumn 2021, Oslo 14 has performed at several prestigious events, including the official opening of the MUNCH museum in Oslo, the Bergen International Festival, the Tonehimmel concert series in Volda, and multiple tours across Eastern Norway. The ensemble has also premiered new works by Camille Norment, Elin Rosseland, Guro Skumsnes Moe, and Bendik Sells.
Image credit: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Catherine Martin, TD, pictured with Annie Fletcher, Director, IMMA and Maia Loughran, aged 8, from Harold’s Cross at the launch of EARTH RISING, a free 3-day festival dedicated to addressing the climate crisis. EARTH RISING takes place at IMMA, Kilmainham from 20 – 22 September. Visit imma.ie. Photo: Marc O’Sullivan
The Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin T.D., yesterday (Thursday 5 September), launched EARTH RISING, a dynamic three-day festival dedicated to addressing the climate crisis through art, creativity, and community. From Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September 2024, in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, EARTH RISING will transform IMMA’s grounds into a vibrant hub of free events designed to inspire collective action towards a sustainable future. The festival offers a rich programme of talks, exhibitions, workshops, outdoor screenings, food, artists salon, music and an Eco Fair, all free to the public.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Catherine Martin, said “EARTH RISING is an important national event that aligns with Ireland’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis through culture and community engagement. The climate crisis requires a unified response, and EARTH RISING serves as a platform where community can come together to share ideas, collaborate, and take collective action. It is through community engagement that sustainable change can be achieved and it is this collective spirit that strengthens community bonds and amplifies the impact of individual actions”.
Annie Fletcher, Director of IMMA said “The original vision for EARTH RISING was simple: to create a space where art meets activism, where the public can engage with artists and thinkers to explore how we might build a more sustainable and thriving future. Today, it has become a vibrant creative assembly for everyone who cares deeply about the future of our planet. This festival not only highlights the urgency of the climate crisis but also demonstrates how creativity can inspire action and foster a shared sense of responsibility.”
The festival programme offers a diverse array of events, including over 100 artists and collaborators who will showcase their work via performances, installations, screenings, workshops, tours, and a talks programme supported by Research Ireland. Programme highlights include an installation and talk by Sakiya, a progressive academy for experimental knowledge production and sharing around local farming in Ramallah, Palestine; a climate comedy workshop with Anne Gill and Diane O’Connor; speed dating to find your ‘Soil Mate’ to connect garden owners with gardenless growers; Project Dandelion workshops hosted by the Mary Robinson Centre; a climate-based mixed reality experience by Andrew McSweeney; a spoken word poetry event focusing on nature, ecology and climate taking place on Culture Night, to name a few!
Special collaborations include a Slow Tour Concert brought to IMMA by the Goethe Institut Ireland featuring musician LIE NING who is travelling across Europe by train and ferry, as part of a resource-efficient concert tour. Also, a discussion exploring the living national artwork The Forest That Won’t Forget which evolved from a collaboration between artist’s John Conway and Fiona Whelan and 221+ (organisation supporting individuals directly affected by failures in the CervicalCheck Screening programme) and Hometree.
Creative Ireland is supporting several projects including Demolition Takedown, a large-scale installation situated in IMMA’s Courtyard that creatively displays the scale of waste. The installation aims to encourage action on reducing construction and demolition waste in Ireland. Creative Ireland also supports the Purpose Disruptors: The Good Life 2030, an initiative that invites the advertising industry and the public to envision a future where sustainability and well-being take centre stage, and Tern the Tide an initiative by artists Marie Gordon and Laura McMahon to raise awareness of the NSPW Little Tern conservation work along the Dublin-Rosslare Railway Line.
The festival programme is available on the EARTH RISING FESTIVAL APP, which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
EARTH RISING EXHIBITON: Take a Breath is a major exhibition that provides an historical, social, political, and personal examination of breathing – why we breathe, how we breathe and what we breathe – exploring themes of decolonisation, environmental racism, indigenous language, the impact of war on the environment and breath as meditation. Guided tours of Take a Breath will take place during the festival.
EARTH RISING Artists – Over 100 artists and collaborators will showcase their work across the weekend. Highlights include outdoor art installations includinga willow installation Live and Let Rot by Ellen Harrold, and Glassophere a glass sculpture addressing the global water crisis by Claire Halpin and Madeleine Hellier. A dance performance Body’s in Trouble; moth releasing events with nocturnal field recordings made onsite from Sarah Rose; and Fuinneamh Community Drum will host workshops for all ages on their 14 foot drum in the meadow. Upcycling and recycling workshops along with nature themed memory and board games for kids, foraging, hedgerow planting, a Compost Carnival and much more!
This year EARTH RISING presents an Artists Salon that brings climate action artists and scientists together to learn about their ideas, how they make their work and the different approaches they take to address the issues of our time.
EARTH RISING TALKS – IMMA Talks programme for EARTH RISING brings together leading thinkers and makers and offers a platform for thought, provocation and exchange, on how to rebuild systems of regeneration, sustainability and care, in a climate changed world. From Land Rights, Health, and Food to Migration, and restoring ancient relationships with forests and woodlands, this gathering brings together a diverse set of practices working nationally and globally, to foster solidarity and shared responsibility in protecting and repairing a climate-changed world.
Speakers include Roland Verquez (Professor of Post/Decolonial Theories and Literatures, the University of Amsterdam); Françoise Vergès (Antiracist Feminist Activist, Co-founder of the Collective Decolonize the Arts); Sharae Deckard (Associate Professor, World Literature, UCD); Nadine El-Enany (Writer, Teacher, Poet, Professor of Law, University of Kent, UK); Ursula Biemann (Swiss Artist, Theorist, Forest Mind); Pippa Marland (author of Ecocriticism and the Island: Readings from the British-Irish Archipelago, UK); Sahar Qawasmi (Sakiya Residency – Palestine); Evie Kenny (host of RTE’s Ecolution podcast); Islander architects (Laura Carroll & Ciarán Molumby); Susannah Hagan (Author of Revolution? Architecture and the Anthropocene, 2022, and Professor University of Westminster, London) and many others.
EARTH RISING FOOD PROGRAMME – Jennie Moran will host a convivial exchange of ideas, skills and knowledge around food where we will rethink our food practices over food demonstrations, talks and presentations. The weekend kicks off with a Taste of the African Diaspora,an evening of conversation and culinary delights to celebrate Culture Night. Weekend highlights include keynote speaker Colin Sage on Food citizenship; a soil workshop for families with Dr Aga Soil Scientist; a talk by artist and bee-keeper Anthony Freeman O’Brien; a panel discussion on Food and Empathy; Food and Storytelling with Ahmad Salah from Bethlehem Palestinian Restaurant; a discussion with Farming for Nature; and an event and workshops by the Louth Urban Food Sanctuary.
EARTH RISING ECO FAIR – Explore the Eco Fair where sustainability meets creativity! The Eco Fair showcases a diverse array of eco-conscious vendors committed to a greener future. Discover unique, sustainable products – from organic skincare and ethical fashion to upcycled home goods – that prioritise circularity and regeneration, all while connecting with like-minded individuals passionate about protecting our planet. The Eco Fair is more than just a marketplace; it’s a celebration of innovation and a call to action for a better tomorrow.
All events and experiences at EARTH RISING are free of charge, ensuring the festival is accessible to all. However, booking in advance may be required for specific workshops and events. For updates and further details, visit www.imma.ie.
ENDS
For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact: Patrice Molloy E:[email protected]T: 086 2009957 Monica Cullinane E:[email protected]T: 086 2010023
Festival Partners: Collaborations and partnerships remain at the heart of Earth Rising 2024. IMMA is proud to work with partners including Creative Ireland, The Mary Robinson Centre, Taighde Éireann | Research Ireland, Dublin Volunteer Centre, Scouting Ireland, EcoUNESCO, Spunout.ie, IPUT Real Estate Dublin, Native Events, DCU Centre for Climate, Goethe Institute, and Technical University Dublin.
melanie bonajo ‘When the body says Yes’, still Big Spoon, 2022, Courstesy the artist & AKINCI
IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) presents When the body says Yes, an immersive installation by Dutch artist melanie bonajo opening on Friday 26 July 2024. melanie bonajo (they/them), is a queer non-binary Dutch artist, filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, and somatic sex coach and educator. The video installation, originally commissioned by the Mondriaan Fund for the Biennale Arte 2022, is part of the artist’s ongoing research into the current status of intimacy in our increasingly alienating, commodity-driven world. For bonajo, touch can be a powerful remedy for the modern epidemic of loneliness.
Through their videos, performances, photographs and installations, bonajo examines current conundrums of co-existence in crippling capitalistic systems, and address themes of eroding intimacy and isolation in an increasingly sterile, technological world.
They research how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation, removing a sense of belonging in an individual, and their works present anti-capitalist methods to reconnect, explore sexualities, intimacies and feelings. Their experimental documentaries often explore communities living or working on the margins of society, either through illegal means or cultural exclusion, and the paradoxes inherent to ideas of comfort with a strong sense for community, equality, and body-politics.
bonajo represented with When the body says Yes The Netherlands at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 and worked with a curatorial team consisting of Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg, Geir Haraldseth and Soraya Pol. The scenography for the installation, both at the Venice Biennale and in subsequent iterations, including at IMMA, has been developed in collaboration with Théo Demans.
melanie bonajo was nominated for the Nam June Paik Award (2018) and the Prix de Rome (2017) and won the IFFR Tiger Award (2016).
IMMA Talks presents a conversation with melanie bonajo and collaborator Pawel CHILL Dudus on Thursday 25 July at 5.30pm. Two artist led workshops with bonajo/Skinship Collective take place on Saturday 27 July exploring Consentship (10am) and Collective Body Spells (2pm). See full details and booking links below.
When the body says Yes was shown at FOMU, Antwerp, Belgium (2023) and KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia (2024) and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. melanie bonajo is represented by AKINCI, Amsterdam.
When the body say Yes, has been made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund.
8 July 2024
– ENDS –
For further information and images please contact:
melanie bonajo When the body says Yes
26 July – 20 October 2024
Admission Free
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm.
Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Webpage: melanie bonajo When the body says Yes
IMMA Talks Programme
Preview Talk: Artist’s Conversation
melanie bonajo, When the body says Yes Thursday 25 July, 5.30 – 6.15pm, Baroque Chapel, IMMA
Free, Booking essential, click here to book
Join Dutch artist melanie bonajo for an artist’s conversation on When the body says Yes. This talk is part of the exhibition’s opening programme, including exhibition preview, reception, and artist lead workshops with collaborator Pawel CHILL Dudus.
Other Events
BODY BUBBLE WORKSHOPS: Saturday 27 July Hosted by by melanie bonajo and Pawel Chill Dudus (Skinship_touch_based_place_for_Kinship) Saturday 27 July, 10 – 1pm, Matheson Creativity Hub, IMMA Workshop – CONSENTSHIP Join melanie bonajo and Pawel CHILL Dudus of Skinship collective for a workshop about consent and boundaries. This is a queer-friendly workshop, the theme of consent will be explored through touching exercises. Participants are asked to bring a blanket or yoga mat.
This workshop is for anyone working and teaching in the area of consent.
Free, Booking essential, click here to book
Saturday 27 July, 2 – 5pm, Matheson Creativity Hub, IMMA WORKSHOP –Collective Body Spells Hosted by melanie bonajo and Pawel Chill Dudus (Skinship)
What does it mean to summon a queer collective body to create a spell? How do we recognise the voice of our collective body and our voice inside of it? And to which collective future do our bodies say YES? Collective Body Spells is a workshop about honouring individual needs while weaving them into the fabric of togetherness, creating a harmonious dance of interconnectedness.
Free, Booking essential, click here to book
About the artist
melanie bonajo (they/them) is an artist, filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, cuddle workshop facilitator and activist. Through their videos, performances, photographs, and installations, they examine current conundrums of co-existence in a crippling capitalist system, and address themes of eroding intimacy and isolation in an increasingly sterile, technological world. They research how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation, removing an individual’s sense of belonging. Their works present anti-capitalist methods to reconnect and to explore sexualities, intimacies and feelings. bonajo’s experimental documentaries often feature communities living or working on the margins of society, either through illegal means or cultural exclusion, and the paradoxes inherent to ideas of comfort with a strong sense for community, equality and body-politics.
bonajo studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and completed residencies at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam (2009 2009-10) and at ISCP in New York (2014). Solo exhibitions have been: KUMU Tallinn, EE (2023), FOMU Antwerp, BE (2023); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, NL (2018); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, DE (2017); FOAM, Amsterdam, NL (2016). Solo shows include When the body says Yes: IMMA Dublin, IE (2024); Kunstpalais Erlangen, DE (2024).
Pawel CHILL Dudus (they/ them) is a Polish artist living in Vienna. He studied contemporary dance and has danced in performances by Georg Blaschke, Akemi Takeya, Alessandro Sciarroni and others.
Pawel CHILL Dudus was born in Poland, studied contemporary dance at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. Since 2015 he has been dedicated to #ONLYLOVEISREAL – a friendship-based collaboration with Laura Eva Meuris, a long-term research project dedicated to the themes of love, intimacy and (self-)care. Pawel feels the need to respond to violence, hatred and fearmongering as well as to the prevalence of normative concepts.
They investigate how intimacy and shared vulnerability can help us to improve the way we interact with each other and to build alternative networks and relationships with each other. Pawel has given workshops at the Berlin festivals STRETCH and xplore, among others. Until recently, they performed in Alexander Gottfarb’s 365-day performance Negotiations at the Tanzquartier Wien.
Skinship is a touched based place for kinship @skinship_berlin. Skinship is a Berlin-based collective teaching workshops on touch, intimacy, consent, pleasure and activism, centering queer/trans/nonbinary/femme people. Celebrating life and diversity in connection to the body is core to our values, and an act of resistance. melanie bonajo, Ayo Gry Jonassen, and Pawel CHILL Dudus founded Skinship in May 2020.
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