IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and Matheson, are pleased to announce Studio Makkink & Bey as the winning practice for the creation of a new community space in the heart of the Museum, titled the Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon, revealed at a gathering at the Museum on Monday evening (27 March, 2023).

Studio Makkink & Bey was selected by a panel of judges, after an invited architectural competition, to create an innovative space at IMMA that combines exceptional architecture and design to provide a welcoming and inclusive space, that inspires creative engagement and fosters social connectivity for audiences of all ages. IMMA are thrilled to partner with Matheson to realise this new space.

Working with the Arts Committee at Matheson, as part of the firm’s Impactful Business Programme, IMMA invited Irish and international practices to engage in an architecture competition resulting in a showcase of the six proposals, which are currently on display until 2 April 2023. The six practices are: AB Projects & Atelier Rae; borien & Ben Mullen; Broken Fields; Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S); RESOLVE Collective; and Studio Makkink & Bey.

Studio Makkink & Bey is led by designer-architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. The studio works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts. The ambition of Studio Makkink & Bey is to see the role of the designer expanded to the most strategic function possible. To this end, their design team includes professionals from many different fields of knowledge; forming alliances with other designers, architects and experts.

Michael Jackson, Managing Partner, Matheson, commenting on the announcement of the winning practice and partnership with IMMA, said:
“On behalf of Matheson, I am delighted to congratulate Studio Makkink & Bey on this achievement and their innovative design for this new space, which is a fitting tribute to Tim’s passion for the arts and reflects the ethos of our Impactful Business Programme to make a meaningful sustainable impact within our community. The Matheson Creativity Hub underlines our commitment as a firm to place diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of our business and I am proud that this space will promote engagement with the arts for people of all ages and backgrounds – providing an accessible and inclusive space for all audiences which will inspire creativity and innovation.”

Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director, commenting on the announcement said:
“The calibre of work submitted genuinely made the job of choosing one overall winner an exceptionally difficult one! What impressed us most about the Makkink & Bey design was its potential to be truly transformational and to drive IMMA forward, opening exciting new conversations and collaborations. 

We are very much looking forward to working with the Makkink & Bey team over the coming months to bring their designs to life and to unveil a new space here at IMMA for schools and community groups, creative partners, and artists”.

Alongside the winning practice, two highly commended designs were selected by the panel: Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S) and borien & Ben Mullen.

The panel of judges comprised of Annie Fletcher, Director, IMMA; Michael Jackson, Managing Partner, Matheson; Elizabeth Grace, Partner, Matheson; Gráinne Dever, Partner, Matheson; Brídín O’Donoghue, wife of Tim Scanlon; Nathalie Weadick, Outgoing Director, Irish Architecture Foundation; and Jacquie Moore, Deputy Art Advisor, The Office of Public Works (OPW).

IMMA will work with Studio Makkink & Bey to realise their design and these rooms will become the Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon. This project is part of a wider long-term project to reimagine IMMA’s non-gallery spaces, with the ambition to make these spaces inclusive and to create a central hub to be used by IMMA’s Engagement and Learning Team, community groups, creative partners, and artists, as well as a space for visitors to dwell and explore on their own.    

Matheson has made a significant contribution to the cultural landscape in Ireland and has worked with IMMA since 2015, supporting over 50 artists through new commissions and major international exhibitions. Both partnerships – New Art at IMMA (2015 – 2018) and Irish Art at IMMA (2018 – 2019) were championed by our shared friend and colleague Tim Scanlon (1965 -2020). As Former Chairman of Matheson and IMMA Board Member (2016 – 2020) Tim was an important influence on IMMA’s thinking. Tim encouraged progressive programming and change-making conversations that placed community engagement and inclusivity at the heart of the museum’s activities. To that end we are delighted to dedicate this new space in memory of Tim.

           

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Contact: For further information and images please contact
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected]
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Heather Yates, Matheson LLP, E: [email protected]
David Kinch, MKC Communications, E: [email protected]

 

Additional Notes for Editors

Architecture Showcase Open: 24 Feb 2023 – 2 April 2023
Webpage: https://imma.ie/whats-on/matheson-creativity-hub/

 

About Matheson

• Matheson LLP (“Matheson“) is an Irish law firm.  Its primary focus is on serving the Irish legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland.
• Matheson’s clients include the majority of the Fortune 100 companies and it advises 7 of the top 10 global technology brands, 7 of the world’s 10 largest asset managers, and over half of the world’s 50 largest banks.
• Matheson is headquartered in Dublin and also has offices in Cork, London, New York, San Francisco and Palo Alto.  Matheson employs 800 people across its six offices, including 121 partners and tax principals, and 540 legal, tax and digital services professionals.
• Matheson was named Law Firm of the Year – Republic of Ireland at The Lawyer European Awards 2022.
• In October 2022, Matheson was named Ireland’s Top Law Firm in the Sunday Independent Best Law Firms 2023 Survey.
• For the second year in a row, in February 2022 Matheson was named Ireland’s largest law firm by the Law Society of Ireland, following the annual publication of practicing solicitor numbers in Ireland.
• For the second year running, Matheson was named Diversity and Inclusion Law Firm of the Year at the Irish Law Awards 2022.
• Matheson was named Ireland Law Firm of the Year at the Chambers Europe Awards 2021.
• Matheson was named Ireland Firm of the Year and Career Development: National Firm of the Year at the 2022 European Women in Business Law Awards.
• In 2021, Matheson underlined its commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion by becoming a signatory to the Law Society of Ireland’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Charter.  Signatories to the GEDI Charter commit to treating all individuals and groups of individuals fairly and equally.
• Matheson’s female / male partner gender ratio has been ranked the third most gender-diverse in continental Europe by The Lawyer in its European 100 report for 2022, an in-depth report which reviews the continental European legal market, focusing on the 100 largest independent European law firms.  Matheson is also the highest ranked Irish law firm for gender diversity among its partners in The Lawyer’s 2022 European 100 report.
• In 2020, Matheson became the first organisation in Ireland to receive the Investors in Diversity Gold Standard Award from the Irish Centre for Diversity in recognition of the firm’s development and implementation of a series of people-focussed D&I initiatives.  In March 2022, Matheson succeeded in retaining the Gold Standard.  No other law firm in Ireland has been awarded it, and no other organisation in Ireland, of any type, has retained it.
• In 2021 Matheson became one of the first Irish law firms to establish a dedicated cross-sectoral and partner-led Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Advisory Group which assists companies in navigating and responding to the rapidly evolving ESG landscape.  Matheson clients have access to an online ESG resource hub of knowledge and insights.
• In 2020, Matheson became the first Irish-headquartered law firm to sign up to the Mindful Business Charter, a collaboration between financial services businesses and law firms in Ireland and the UK promoting healthy and effective ways of working.  In 2021, Matheson became a signatory to the Law Society of Ireland’s Professional Wellbeing Charter, which champions behaviours, skills and practices to promote and enable professional wellbeing in the workplace.

About Participating Practices

AB projects & Atelier Rae is an award-winning design studio based in Dublin, working across interior, furniture and architectural design for private & commercial clients. AB projects also delivers & manages the production and delivery of works, with a production facility also based in Dublin. https://abprojects.ie/

The supporting architect on this project submission is Atelier Rae, the architecture and design studio led by award-winning architect and artist Rae Moore. http://www.atelierrae.ie/

borien & Ben Mullen
borien is a design/build studio specializing in creative and thoughtful designs for furniture and interior spaces. borien works with retail and residential clients alike. All furniture pieces are designed and built by hand, in house.

A husband and wife team, Eoin and Robin, have been collaborating together after meeting at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. They began working in Film and Fashion in Toronto and in 2018, moved to Ireland where they have received two IDI awards for their furniture and interior designs. https://www.borienstudio.com/

borien collaborated with Irish architect Ben Mullen, whose practice Ben Mullen Architects was established in 2020 and in 2022 was awarded the inaugural RIAI CCI Eileen Gray Fellowship. He is a visiting critic at schools of architecture in Ireland and the UK and contributes regularly to international journals of architecture and design.

Broken Fields is a multi-disciplinary collective made up of individual practitioners Louise Harrington, Enya Moore, Aideen O’ Donovan and Kate O’ Shea. Broken Fields brings together experience, knowledge, and practice from the fields of socially engaged art, architecture, community work, activism, research, and writing.

The name Broken Fields refers to the breaking down of disciplines, siloes, and fields. In the breaking down of these constructed boundaries, Broken Fields brings together the strengths of diverse practices in processes, projects and spaces that are deeply place-based. @broken_fields

Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S) is a research-based design studio, founded in 2015 by Diogo Passarinho, investigating how emotional contexts can be brought into shaping spatial memories. This means that more than just the physical scale of the project, D_P_S delves deep into what creating space entails. Art, Theory, and a community of Artists and Thinkers is the medium that the studio uses to explore and develop what they call “emotional landscapes”. They try to design spaces that live in our memories and most likely will outlive the short life expectancies of some projects.

The studio’s work has been showcased across the world, including at the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Baltic Triennial, Hayward Gallery, Palais De Tokyo, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Oslo National Museum, Van Abbemuseum. https://diogopassarinho.com/

RESOLVE is an interdisciplinary design collective that combines architecture, engineering, technology and art to address social challenges. We have delivered numerous projects, workshops, publications, and talks in the UK and across Europe, all of which look toward realising just and equitable visions of change in our built environment.

Much of their work aims to provide platforms for the production of new knowledge and ideas, whilst collaborating and organising to help build resilience in our communities. This means designing with and for young people and under-represented groups in society. For Resolve ‘design’ includes both physical and systemic intervention, exploring ways of using a project’s site as a resource and working with different communities as stakeholders in the short and long-term management of projects.

Their portfolio includes works across the UK and Europe, including the redesign of Brixton Bridge, residencies with galleries including S1 Artspace Sheffield, V&A East, Welcome Collection, De Le Warr Pavilion, and a recent commission for a gallery design at MARKK Museum, Hamburg. resolvecollective.com

Studio Makkink & Bey is led by designer-architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. The studio works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts. Supported by a design team, they have been operating their design practice since 2002.

The ambition of Studio Makkink & Bey is to see the role of the designer expanded to the most strategic function possible. To this end, their design team includes professionals from many different fields of knowledge; forming alliances with other designers, architects and experts. Their past projects include work with the Theatre Kunstmin 2014, the Rotterdam 2015, and their self-initiated project, the WaterSchool. studiomakkinkbey.nl

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.

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) today (2 March, 2023) announced the appointment of two new members to the Senior Management team – Sheena Barrett as Head of Research & Learning, and Mary Cremin as Head of Programming.

Welcoming the appointments IMMA Director Annie Fletcher said “The future for IMMA feels really bright with these two appointments. I couldn’t think of a more dynamic addition of intelligence, energy, and strategic thinking to our already brilliant and passionate team. In their individual ways both Mary and Sheena have proven through incredible careers and innovative practices how art is pivotal to our society, and we can’t wait to work with them in imagining an even bigger and more ambitious Irish Museum of Modern Art.” 

Sheena Barrett joined Dublin City Council in 2006 as Assistant Arts Officer and Curator to lead the development of the LAB Gallery as a critical platform for emerging arts practice in Ireland. Having previously held roles at Breaking Ground Public Art Commissioning Programme, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland, she has extensive curatorial experience, supporting artists and audiences through ambitious public programmes and commissioning. Barrett is part of the curatorial team for Living Canvas, Europe’s largest digital screen for cultural use developed by IPUT in partnership with Dublin City Council. She a founding member of MONTO Arts and Dublin Placemaking Network and part of the programme team for MA Art Research Collaboration at IADT, Dun Laoghaire.

Responding to her appointment Barrett said “I am very excited to join IMMA as Head of Research & Learning at a time when IMMA’s new strategy centre’s the role of learning, engagement and research at the core of the museum’s work. Museums can play a critical role in fostering curiosity and creating brave spaces for hope and shared experiences. My experience at the LAB foregrounded practices by artists based in Ireland at critical moments in the development of their practice along with innovative research and engagement partnerships and I look forward to working to support opportunities and connections at a local and global level.”

Mary Cremin has been Director of Void Gallery, Derry since 2017, where she has supported artists to produce and present ground-breaking new works, including commissioning the artist Helen Cammock’s Turner Prize winning film The Long Note. Cremin was the Commissioner and Curator of the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with artist Eva Rothchild in 2019. Working with organisations such as the Afghan Visual Arts & History Collective and Beirut Art Residency, her program focusses on revealing new narratives and histories that address and challenge the disparities that exist within Western culture, her program acts as a curatorial corrective. Her areas of research are embedded in ecology, ethics and is informed by politically and socially engaged practice. She is a co-founder of the North South Visual Art network, an advocacy group for the visual arts sector encompassing both North and South of Ireland. She is currently chair of Ormston House, Limerick.

Responding to her appointment Cremin said ”I am excited to take up the role as Head of Programming at IMMA. I am honoured to work with the Director, Annie Fletcher, and the team at IMMA at this exciting moment in its history and to create a dynamic and exciting programme that actively engages with a national and international community and responds to and is relevant to our times.”

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For further information and images please contact:

Monica Cullinane E:[email protected]

Patrice Molloy E:[email protected]

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is delighted to present Scene of the Myth, a major solo exhibition by artist Sarah Pierce opening on Friday 24 March 2023. Guest curated by Rike Frank and the European Kunsthalle, this expansive exhibition consists of performances, videos, large-scale installations, and archives. 

Sarah Pierce, who lives and works in Dublin, relocated to Ireland from the US in 2000. Rike Frank has brought together 12 works, spanning 20 years, to highlight patterns of making and thinking that define Pierce’s art practice. Born out of relationships between narratives we reproduce and those we wish to leave behind, Scene of the Myth, asks what it means to gather, reflect and act in community.

The title of the exhibition stems from one of Pierce’s essays in which the artist describes social infrastructures, such as academies and museums, as moments through which the narratives and conventions of a historical past are re-constituted in the present. The scene of the myth is not an actual location; it is an occasion where knowledges, both inherited and invented, come to play. The exhibition is one such occasion.

A key to the curatorial work is the potential for open doorways and unblocked windows to mark out specific “scenes” in and around Pierce’s practice: Institutes and Protests, Legacies and Exercises, Communities and Migrations.

The exhibition features a significant selection of projects with students, who appear as performers, demonstrators, and interlocutors, including An Artwork in the Third Person (2009), a set of interviews made with the Dutch Art Institute; Campus (2011), a performance that mirrors communal acts such as teaching, learning, and political protest; and The Square (2017), an experimental “play without a script” that uses Bertolt Brecht’s Lehrstück – or learning play – as a starting point. Pierce will involve student groups in the re-learning and re-staging of key performance works at intervals throughout the exhibition.

Over the last years, Sarah Pierce has developed a concept she names the “community of the exhibition” to describe how exhibitions have a particular ability to hold us, and works of art, in community. We enter the exhibition with others – other audiences, across generations, geographies and times. The exhibition includes artworks that bring to the fore this ongoing and discerning interest in community’s tenuous and unavowable bonds, whether it is the community of dementia in No Title (2017), the community of diaspora in Pathos of Distance (2015), or the community of translation in The Question Would Be The Answer To The Question, Are You Happy? (2009-12).

27 February 2023

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact:

Patrice Molloy | [email protected]

Monica Cullinane | [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

Exhibition Details

Title: Sarah Pierce: Scene of the Myth

Exhibition Dates: 24 March – 3 September 2023

Admission free, book online at imma.ie
Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm. Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Bank Holiday Mondays: 12noon – 5.30pm

Artists Talk
Thurs 23 March at 5.30pm
The artist Sarah Pierce and guest curator Rike Frank in conversation as part of the opening reception of Scene of the Myth.

Curators Lunchtime Talk
Fri 21 April at 1.15pm with Rachael Gilbourne, Assistant Curator, IMMA

Live Artworks
A number of Sarah Pierce’s artworks within Scene of the Myth involve live elements. Performers include a core group of students and recent graduates selected from a national open call, as well as other groups. Open rehearsals and performances of the artworks – Campus (2011), Levitating in the Nauman (2014), and Future Exhibitions (2013) – take place at intervals in the galleries and across the wider Museum. The Square (2015) engages groups of Transition Year students at moments throughout the duration of the exhibition. Shelter Bread & Freedom (2021) includes an afternoon of live readings in the shelter at the People’s Flower Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin, on 3 September 2023. For details visit imma.ie

Paraeducation Department:

In 2004, Sarah Pierce and Annie Fletcher developed the Paraeducation Department as a way to think about the knowledge that a community brings into the Museum. As a counter-balance to the Museum’s education and exhibition programmes, Paraeducation has no audience or agenda. It values gathering as an act and an end in itself. The room is available to book for self-organised activities, reading groups, and exchanges not programmed by the Museum, every Wednesday and Friday, 11am–1pm and 2–4pm.   

Dementia-Inclusive Programming:

To coincide with Sarah Pierce’s artwork No Title (2017) in the exhibition, people living with dementia and their family members or carers are invited to participate in a series of art-making ‘exercises’ developed by Pierce. The person living with dementia and their carer, as a community of two, are guided by a facilitator, encouraging each participant to alternately lead and follow as they explore what emerges together. A dementia-inclusive Azure tour of Scene of the Myth will take place on Friday 5 May at 11am.

For Dementia-Inclusive Programming, if you or someone you know would like to participate, contact [email protected] or 016129914 for more information.

 IMMA International Summer School 2023, Art and Politics, #5 Assembly
19 – 30 June
In 2023, the annual IMMA International Summer School focuses on the theme of ‘assembly’. This intensive programme of online engagements includes seminars, discussions and workshops. Featuring a range of national and international artists, theorists and educators including Sarah Pierce, Ahmet Öğüt, Eva Weinmayr and Florian Malzacher, this year’s Summer School will overlap and intersect with Scene of the Myth in significant ways. The Summer School has a global reach, offering a free, accessible platform for participants from all over the world.

For full programme dates, details and tickets, visit www.imma.ie

All talks and events are free admission but ticketed unless otherwise stated.

About the Artist

Since 2003, Sarah Pierce has used the term The Metropolitan Complex to describe her project, characterised by forms of gathering, both historical examples and those she initiates. The processes of research and presentation that she undertakes demonstrate a broad understanding of cultural work and a continual renegotiation of the terms for making art, the potential for dissent, and self-determination. Pierce works with installation, performance, archives, talks and papers, often opening these up to the personal and the incidental in ways that challenge received histories and accepted forms. Her interests include radical pedagogies and student work, art historical legacies and figures such as El Lissitzky, August Rodin, and Eva Hesse, and theories of community and love founded in Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille.

Pierce’s work has shown widely in the EU, US and Canada with major exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2016), CCS Hessel Museum & CCS Galleries, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (2016 and 2012), and Tate Modern and MuMOK Vienna (2010). In 2014 she presented a major solo exhibition in three-parts, Lost Illusions/Illusions perdues, developed jointly with Walter Phillips Gallery Banff AL, Mercer Union Toronto ON, and SBC Galerie Montreal QB. Other solo presentations include: No Title at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Derry (2017); The Meaning of Greatness at Project Arts Centre (2006). She has participated in major international biennials including Glasgow International (2018), Eva International (2016, 2012), Lyon Biennial (2011), International Sinop Biennial (2010), Moscow Biennial (2007), and in 2005, Pierce represented Ireland in a group exhibition at the 51st Venice Biennale.

Publications on her work include No Title, co-edited with Sara Greavu, published by CCA Derry, and designed by Kaisa Lassinaro with essays by T.J. Clark, Karl Holmqvist, Mason Leaver-Yap, and Claire Potter; and Sketches of Universal History Compiled from Several Authors, edited by Rike Frank, published by Book Works, London and designed by Peter Maybury with essays by Melissa Gronlund, Tom Holert, Barbara Clausen, Declan Long, and Padraíc E. Moore. Pierce regularly writes and has chapters in many publications, most recently in, Of(f) Our Times: The Aftermath of the Ephemeral and other Curatorial Anachronics (Sternberg 2019).

Pierce was born in Connecticut in 1968 and grew up in Ontario before attending university in Los Angeles. In 1994, she completed her MFA at Cornell University in the School of Architecture, Art and Planning, and in 1995 she attended the Whitney Program in New York. In 2000 she moved to Dublin where she continues to work and live.

About the Guest Curator
Rike Frank works as a curator and writer and teaches exhibition histories and curatorial practice. She is Executive Director of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme, as well as co-director of the European Kunsthalle. Her practice often reflects on temporality, textility as well as instituting and the documentation of curatorial articulations. Past institutional affiliations include Associate Professor of Exhibition Studies at the Academy of Fine Art of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts/KHIO (2014–2018); head of the exhibition space at Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig (2012–2014); member of the Artistic Program team, European Kunsthalle (2010–2012); Curator, Secession, Vienna (2001–2005); head of the Curatorial Office, documenta 12 (2007). Publications as editor and co-editor include Of(f) Our Times. Curatorial Anachronics (2019), Ane Hjort Guttu. Writings, Conversations, Scripts (2018), Textiles: Open Letter (2015), Textile Theorien der Moderne. Alois Riegl in der Kunstkritik (2015), Timing – On the Temporal Dimension of Exhibiting (2014), and Sketches of Universal History: Compiled from Several Authors by Sarah Pierce (2013).

IMMA, today (9 February, 2023) announced highlights of its 2023 programme, opening with a major retrospective by one of Ireland’s most accomplished and respected artists, Patricia Hurl. Developed over the course of 40 years, the primary subject of Hurl’s work is the lived experiences of women and sets the scene for a strong female led exhibition programme taking place at IMMA this year. 

Alongside Hurl, other solo exhibitions by artists include Sarah Pierce, Howardena Pindell, Jo Baer and Anne Madden. Other significant highlights during the year will include a major photography exhibition exploring portraiture from the Bank of America Collection; a museum-wide exhibition Self-Determination, the culmination of a three-year project as part of Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries Programme; the design and creation of a new community space in partnership with Matheson, and the return of the Museum’s popular summer programme IMMA Outdoors and IMMA’s Eco Art Festival, Earth Rising.  

IMMA is proud to open the year with Irish Gothic, a major retrospective exhibition by one of Ireland’s most accomplished and respected artists, Patricia Hurl. Greatly admired by fellow artists, but overlooked for decades by the prevailing art system, this is Hurl’s first comprehensive exhibition, presenting work spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career.  

In March IMMA presents another important large-scale solo exhibition by Sarah Pierce, Scene of the Myth, guest curated by Rike Frank and the European Kunsthalle. The exhibition features 12 major works, spanning 20 years, to highlight patterns of making and thinking that define Pierce’s art practice. Borne out of sticky relationships between the narratives we reproduce and those we wish to leave behind, Scene of the Myth asks what it means to protest, reflect, and act in community.   

A key moment in the Spring is the launch of a new community space in the heart of the Museum, in partnership with Matheson Law Firm – The Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon. Tim Scanlon, former Chairman of Matheson and Board Member of IMMA, was an important influence on IMMA’s thinking, who encouraged progressive programming and conversations that placed community engagement at the heart of the Museum’s activities. Following an invited design competition, the Creativity Hub winning design will be announced on 23 February. 

This summer IMMA will proudly present, Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection, in partnership with the Bank of America. This is a major exhibition featuring the works of international photographers from the early through the mid-twentieth century, a period often called the ‘golden age of portrait photography’. The exhibition includes works by master portraitists such as Antony Armstrong-Jones, Richard Avedon, Yousuf Karsh, Gisèle Freund and Chuck Stewart, as well as renowned photographers Berenice Abbott, Imogen Cunningham, Garry Winogrand and Brassaï. This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program. 

IMMA Outdoors returns once again in 2023 with a vibrant programme of artist commissions, performances, music, talks, workshops, and tours taking place across the site. And after a successful first year, 2023 sees the return of Earth Rising, IMMA’s Eco Art Festival celebrating people, place and planet, taking place over three days in September. In addition, IMMA’s much loved Summer Party will take place once again this July.   

In the Autumn, IMMA presents a major museum wide exhibition, Self-Determination, as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme that marks a century since the partition of Ireland and the subsequent formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The exhibition focuses on the role of art and artists in shaping the island’s jurisdictions in the international context and aftermath of the First World War. This exhibition is part of a three-year initiative supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023. 

Commenting on the 2023 programme, IMMA Director, Annie Fletcher said “It is wonderful to kick start the year with a museum scale retrospective of the work of Patricia Hurl. This is exactly the kind of exhibition IMMA should be programming – not only bringing world class international practice to Ireland, but also mobilising all the museum’s resources to research and exhibit what is an outstanding Irish painting practice.” 

Other key exhibitions in 2023 include Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection, opening in April, that explores the role the Hobart’s and the Pyms Gallery played in establishing a new canon of Irish art. Unseeing Traces also opens in April – an exhibition presented with New Communities Partnership (NCP), Ireland’s largest independent migrant-led national network. A solo exhibition by American artist Howardena Pindell opens in June comprising works from the 1970s to the present, and in August a series of works by two prominent painters will be exhibited – Irish artist Anne Madden and American artist Jo Baer. To conclude the year, IMMA is delighted to host the most important platform for visual art graduates in Ireland, The RDS Visual Art Awards in December. 

Please click on the links below to read more about the individual exhibitions, which will be accompanied by a dynamic programme of talks, events, screenings, performances, artist residencies and artist commissions to be announced throughout the year. For exhibitions without links please contact a member of the press team for further details.  

IMMA Programme 2023 

Opening in 2023 

Patricia Hurl, Irish Gothic  
10 February –  21 May 2023

The Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon
February – 26 March 2023

Sarah Pierce, Scene of the Myth 
24 February – 26 March 2023

Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection
8 April – 23 September 2023

Unseeing Traces
15 April – 11 June 2023

Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection
26 May – 8 October 2023

Howardena Pindell, A Renewed Language
29 June – 30 October 2023

Coming Home Late: Jo Baer’s in the Land of the Giants
24 August 2023 – 21 January 2024

Anne Madden, Seven Paintings
21 August 2023 – 21 January 2024

Self-Determination 
28 October 2023 – 21 April 2024

RDS Visual Arts Awards
8 December 2023 – 21 January 2024

Continuing from 2022 

Navine G. Dossos, Kind Words Can Never Die
IMMA Courtyard

The Otolith Group, Xenogenesis 
Until 12 February 2023

Kevin Rooney, Revenants
Until 19 March 2023

 

– ENDS – 

 

For further information and images please contact: 

Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] 

Patrice Molloy E: [email protected] 

From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Published on 3 February 2023

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, has today announced the following four new appointments to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art:

• Ms. Ali Curran
• Ms. Jess Majekodunmi
• Mr. Mike Fitzpatrick
• Ms. Sinéad O’Sullivan

The four appointees will each serve a five-year term. Commenting on the appointments, Minister Martin said:

I am delighted to announce the appointments of these dynamic candidates with a diversity of experience which will support the operations and ambition of the Irish Museum of Modern Art for the coming five years. I wish to congratulate all four appointees and thank them for taking on these important roles. I wish them the very best during their terms.

Mr. David Harvey, Chairperson of IMMA said:

I am delighted to welcome the new appointees to the board of IMMA who join at a particularly exciting time for the museum as we embark on our new five-year strategy. Each brings unique skills to the museum where our Board already has a wide diversity of talent and I look forward to working with them. The coming years will see IMMA build on the achievements of the previous three decades, to increase its public reach with an ambitious programme while also continuing to grow international connections to promote Irish art globally.

The appointments follow a public call for applications on www.Stateboards.ie and an assessment process.

Notes:

Ms. Ali Curran is an experienced business and organisational consultant. She is a Director of CHL Consulting Ltd., a member of the Institute of Directors Ireland and a certified Management Consultant with the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisors. She holds a Masters in Organisational Psychology, professional certificate in Organisational Change and is a qualified executive and leadership coach. Ali has a strong history of successful leadership and management of cultural organisations having previously worked as Director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, Director of The Peacock Theatre @ The Abbey, and Director of the Tron Theatre, Glasgow.

Ms. Jess Majekodunmi is a managing director at The Dock, Accenture’s flagship R&D and Global Innovation Centre in Dublin. She is a design historian and an innovation designer and brings great skills and vast experience in relation to community, equality, diversity, and inclusion as well as innovation and sustainability.

Mr. Mike Fitzpatrick, Dean of the Limerick School of Art & Design, TUS. As an artist, curator, academic and cultural producer, his previous experience includes roles as Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art, Irish Commissioner for the Venice Biennale, Director of Ireland’s first National City of Culture, led Limerick’s bid for European Capital of Culture, and as Visual Art Curator with the Kilkenny Arts Festival.

Ms. Sinéad O’Sullivan, is a multidisciplinary engineer, academic and writer whose work lies at the intersection of innovation, economics, geopolitics, engineering and more. She is also Adjunct Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the famed New Bauhaus institute, teaching a novel and interdisciplinary syllabus of engineering and design. She formerly led Prof. Michael E. Porter’s research at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School.

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is delighted to present Irish Gothic, a major retrospective opening on Friday 10 February 2023 by one of Ireland’s most accomplished and respected artists, Patricia Hurl. This is Hurl’s first significant exhibition, presenting work spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career.

Hurl’s work traverses the disciplines of painting, multi-media and collaborative art practice. Her oeuvre is by nature political and, since the 1980s, her work has explored loss, pain, frustration and loneliness. Originally from Dublin, and a former member of Temple Bar Galleries and Studios, Hurl often works in a collaborative way, most recently with filmmaker Therry Rudin. Hurl and Rudin have established a number of community–based programmes, including Damer House Gallery and Silver Barn Studios in Tipperary. Hurl is also part of the Na Cailleacha collective made up of women visual artists, filmmakers and musicians from across Europe whose concerns embrace the processes of aging, personal loss, loneliness and stereotypes of the older woman as witch or hag.

The exhibition at IMMA includes more than 80 works, many of which have never been on public display. Developing over the course of 40 years, the work’s primary subject matter is the lived experiences of women. Using painting, performance, film, textiles and her own body, Hurl explores the hardship faced by mothers, sisters and friends: women warriors affected by horrific acts and often powerless to ease the suffering of loved ones. The catalyst for recent works such as The Warrior Series was media coverage surrounding the treatment of women internationally, and closer to home, in political events such as the Belfast rape trial of 2018. Also on view will be a number of early works in which Hurl draws on her own experience to explore the suburban home as an imperfect ideal, including sketchbooks, diaries, and magazine and newspaper cuttings that are a central part of her practice.

Commenting on the exhibition, Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director said; “We are delighted to have initiated a Museum scale retrospective of the work of Patricia Hurl. This is exactly the kind of exhibition IMMA should be programming – not only bringing world class international practice to Ireland, but mobilising all of the Museum’s resources to research and exhibit what is an outstanding Irish painting practice. This artist’s work has never before been seen in such a comprehensive exhibition. It is very interesting to look at Hurl’s deft painterly style and read it against contemporaneous painting practices like Luc Tuymans’ or Marlene Dumas’: there is a certain haunting simplicity in the gesture of each stoke and an understanding of the gestural power which fills each canvas. Hurl’s subject matter is both highly personal, speaking to her lived experience and perspective, and also an excoriating and deeply felt portrayal of what it is and was to live as a woman in Ireland from the 1980s onward.” 

05 January 2023

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact:

Patrice Molloy | [email protected]

Sam Talbot | [email protected]

Isabel Davies | [email protected]

 

Additional Notes for Editors

Exhibition Details

Title: Patricia Hurl: Irish Gothic

Exhibition Dates: 10 February – 21 May 2023

Admission free, book online at imma.ie

Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm. Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Bank Holiday Mondays: 12noon – 5.30pm.

Curators Lunchtime Talk

Friday 3 March at 1.15pm, IMMA Galleries
Admission free, booking essential at imma.ie.

 

About the Artist

Patricia Hurl was born in Dublin and was a lecturer in Fine Art Painting at the Dublin Institute of Technology for over 20 years.  She studied at the National College of Art and Design, graduating in 1975, and at Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design, until 1984. In 1984 she won the Norah McGuinness award for painting. Hurl’s work was recently included in The Narrow Gate of the Here and Now: IMMA 30 Years of the Global Contemporary: Queer Embodiment; IMMA, Dublin 2021 – 2022; Elliptical Affinities: Irish Women Artists and the Politics of the Body, 1984 to the present, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Co Louth and Limerick City Art Gallery, 2019 – 2020. Hurl has exhibited in selected group and solo shows and has represented Ireland in symposiums in Atlanta USA, Caversham, S.A. and Zaragossa, Spain. She was a contributor to The Great Book of Ireland. Her work is included in the recent publication Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume V: Twentieth Century, Royal Irish Academy, 2015. Her work is represented in private and public collections including IMMA; The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon; The Highlanes Gallery and the Collection of University of Limerick.

IMMA presents solo exhibition by Irish artist Kevin Mooney

 15/11/2022

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is delighted to present Revenants, a solo exhibition by Irish artist Kevin Mooney, curated by Sarah Kelleher, opening on Thursday 1 December 2022

Revenants features a cross-section of key works made between 2016 and 2022, reflecting Mooney’s ongoing commitment to creating a ‘speculative art history’, one which imagines the ‘lost’ art of an Irish diaspora.

As a colonised nation, there are large gaps in the record of our art history caused by poverty, famine and mass migration. Revenants marks the gaps in our visual culture as a traumatic break and a reverberant event in the Irish psyche. Through a distinctive approach to figuration that draws on sources as varied as Vincent Van Gogh, Irish mythology and 1980s horror films, Mooney’s work reconsiders these gaps and reverse-engineers the lost art of this Irish diaspora, imagining it as a mutant absurdist folklore, and, in the process opening up questions about cultural influence and transformation.

Hybridising imagery and visual languages from disparate traditions of painting and material culture, Mooney’s work punctures some of the clichés of an Irish vernacular aesthetic, and opens up a space to reflect critically on the highly selective nature of popular history. By imaging the spectres of this ‘lost’ Irish art, Revenants reminds us that ghost stories are as revealing as they are disturbing, in that they point to the complexities of our culture, past and present.

15 November 2022

– ENDS –

Contact: For further information and images please contact Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

 

Additional Notes for Editors

Exhibition Details
Title: Kevin Mooney: Revenants
Dates: 1 December 2022 – 5 March 2023
Admission Free

Open: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm. Wednesday: 11.30am – 5.30pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5.30pm. Bank Holiday Mondays: 12noon – 5.30pm.

Artists In-Conversation
Wed 30 Nov, 5pm, Lecture Room, IMMA
In Conversation with Kevin Mooney and curator Sarah Kelleher
Admission free, booking essential

Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a significant new publication, designed by Pony Ltd, featuring texts by Sarah Kelleher and Seán Kissane. Price €15 from The IMMA Shop.

About the Artist
Kevin Mooney is a Cork-based artist who graduated from the MFA program in NCAD in 2012, and from the MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 1997. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Kelleher, arts writer and Government of Ireland scholar. The exhibition at IMMA is the culmination of a major series of exhibitions in which Mooney explores the ‘what might have been’ in Irish art history and visual culture.

IMMA is delighted to present an international research conference 100 Years of Self-determination, a Global Perspective from 9 – 12 November. The conference marks a century since the partition of Ireland and the subsequent formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The theme of the conference is self-determination and it focuses on the role of art and artists in shaping both of the island’s jurisdictions in the international context and aftermath of the First World War. This conference is part of a three-year initiative culminating in a major exhibition in 2023. This event is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.

The guidance of the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations acknowledges the significant role of cultural brokers including IMMA – in managing conversations and engaging communities in a meaningful way through creative expression. The Centenaries Programme continues to encourage and support artistic and creative endeavours that have an important role in encouraging reflection, exploration and debate, allowing people of all traditions to question and consider issues which may be challenging and/or difficult. Cultural engagement also offers a space to explore complex narratives which arise from the partition on the island and the Civil War.

The conference seeks to examine the artistic responses to these historical events over time and across a range of territories, to generate new thinking and understanding about the cultural manifestations in response to these events, and to consider their significance in a contemporary context.

Commenting on the conference, Annie Fletcher, Director of IMMA, said; “Drawing on Arthur Griffith’s call in 1919 to ‘mobilise the poets’ to help make Ireland’s case for independence on the international stage, this conference will reassess the role of art and artists in exploring the international movement towards self-determination, situating their work within a global context of redrawn Imperial power, emerging nation states and independence movements post WWI and the collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires.”

The conference takes place online and in-person and will comprise presentations from a number of invited speakers including Adom Getachew, political theorist Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago; Róisín Kennedy, Lecturer/Assistant Professor, School of Art History and Cultural Policy, UCD; Fearghal McGarry, Professor, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queens University, Belfast; Hussein Omar, Lecturer in Modern Global History, University College Dublin; Lisa Godson, Lecturer and Historian of Design and Material Culture, National College of Art and Design; and artist Jasmina Cibic, along with presentations drawn from a call for papers exploring themes such as ‘Political Imaginations’; ‘Official Culture’; ‘Visual Culture and the Establishment’; ‘Comparative Imaginations of Self-Determination’; and ‘Life, Art and Politics’.  There will also be presentations from IMMA’s current Irish Research Council Enterprise Postdoctoral Fellows, Dr Stephen O’Neill and Dr John Wilkins.

4 October 2022

– ENDS –

Contact: For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

 Additional Notes for Editors

Venue:
Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7 or imma.ie

Conference dates:
9 – 12 November 2022

Admission:
Admission is free

Booking details:
This four-day conference can be attended online and/or in-person. Registration is essential for both in-person and online events on imma.ie.

IMMA Reading Group: Art in the Age of Self-determination
In the lead up to the conference IMMA is hosting an online reading group ‘Art and the Age of Self-determination’. Led by Dr Stephen O’Neill, this reading group focuses on some of the key texts and ideas informing the conference. The reading group takes place online via Zoom on Saturdays 1, 8, 15 and 22 October 12:00noon – 1.30pm (GMT+1). Places are limited. For information and to register click here

This conference and reading group are part of a three-year initiative culminating in a major exhibition in 2023, supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.

IMMA is delighted to present a vibrant eco art festival, Earth Rising, taking place on 21, 22 and 23 October 2022. Over three days artists, architects, storytellers, biologists, performers, designers, musicians and film makers will combine inspiring artistic interventions and civic exploration of eco creativity, with workshops, talks and events, taking place across the IMMA campus.

Earth Rising presents over 70 contributors, artist commissions, a dynamic talks programme and showcases a stunning Built to Disappear eco pavilion sponsored by Lioncor and designed by Reddy Architecture + Urbanism. Over the three days, Earth Rising will plant the seeds of sustainability, enabling audiences of all ages to participate, discuss, experiment, and innovate. The festival, which focuses on citizens assembly, brings together a wide variety of eco artists, practitioners and activists from across the island of Ireland. An eclectic live music line up and a variety of food stalls will add to the energetic atmosphere on site promising an engaging and enjoyable free day out.

Central to the festival is the Built to Disappear project, a new site-specific pavilion, titled Éirigh, located in the IMMA Courtyard. This project is the result of a dynamic partnership between Lioncor and Reddy Architecture + Urbanism to create a unique gathering space that uses environmentally conscious approaches to materials and assembly that highlight the relationship between the environment, art, architecture, and construction. The bespoke pavilion considers the theme of Earth Rising within the context of energy and how it is generated, used and valued. Constructed using willow stems, which is seen in indigenous woven architecture around the globe, can be locally grown and biodegrades back into the environment. The immersive nature of the pavilion will absorb the visitor in its materiality, lifecycle, energy consumption, durability and texture offering a contemplative and reflective space to consider climate change. Lioncor sees Éirigh as a piece of contemporary art, reminding us of the importance and challenges involved in good design and environmentally conscious construction and the impact it has on each and every one of us as well as the world around us.

A visually stunning new site-specific installation, titled Kind Words Can Never Die, created by artist Navine G. Dossos, that transforms the colonnades of the IMMA Courtyard with a vibrant mural wall painting is presented as part of the festival. Kind Words Can Never Die explores new psychological states that have emerged in response to a greater awareness of global and local climate change and was created throughout the month of July through a series of public workshops at IMMA. Inspired by the books Earth Emotions (2019) by Glenn Albrecht, and Thought Forms (1901) by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, these wall paintings explore how colour can be used to express emotional states, and make images of these complex feelings that can be both negative and positive responses to ecological change.

A combination of over 70 unique contributions and interventions will take place over IMMA’s 48-acre site. These include an immersive performance, Imaginarium’s: incubating wild futures, by the Breaking Cover Collective that communicates the urgency of the ongoing ecological crisis to reignite our relationship to earth. A performative essay by Luke Casserly, Distillation, that unearths the personal and hidden narratives of the Irish bog landscape, using scent and sound, is presented in association with the Goethe Institut. Artist Lisa Fingleton will present Drawing to Save the World, a workshop focused on food security and climate change through the medium of drawing. Seeking Refuge, a powerful interactive game exploring themes of migration, citizenship and the climate crisis is presented by Chinedum Muotto. Film screenings include Adrian O’Connell’s What are we building in there? a dive into data centres, their effect on our planet and our people. This is just a taster of what can be expected throughout the festival.

IMMA Talks brings together the festivals thought leadership platform, exploring the big issues and challenges of the day. The talks programme includes Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino; a London-based author, consultant, and entrepreneur with a background in design. She is building the Low Carbon Design Institute, exploring how creative professionals integrate climate change knowledge in their practice and will deliver a talk on Saturday 22 October. Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden, Why Our Minds Need the Wild will deliver a keynote talk on Sunday 23 October. Jones embarks on a fascinating journey through new scientific research that shows why forging a bond with nature is critical for our health and wellness, while also raising awareness about the alarming effects of its absence.

Seed STUDIO will open its doors for three days to showcase research, practices and projects which have formed Seed STUDIO activities over the last six months. Seed STUDIO was conceived by artist Clodagh Emoe and piloted by IMMA to addresses an overwhelming need to explore new ways of deepening our connection with the natural world through individual and collective artistic practice/research that foregrounds nature and biodiversity. A schedule of activities will include a premier and repeated screenings of Emoe’s latest project Classroom in the Sun alongside an open space for those curious about Seed STUDIO.

Earth Rising is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and is presented in partnership with Lioncor.

Tickets are free and are available from Wednesday 21 September, please click here to book your ticket.

21 September 2022

ENDS 

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]  

Additional Notes for Editors  

Admission: Free 
Tickets: Available from Wednesday 21 September at https://imma.ie/whats-on/earth-rising/
Dates: Friday 21, Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 October 2022, daily from 3pm – 9pm Friday, 12pm- 7pm Saturday and Sunday
Location: IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8
Programme: A daily programme will be available shortly on IMMA’s website

List of Contributors
Adrian O’Connell; Amy Brannigan; Andrew McSweeney; Angelica Atzin Garcia; Ann Ensor; BBEYOND; Breaking Cover Collective; Brianna Marshall Crowe; Catherine McDonald; Chinedum Muotto; David Ian Bickley & Hina Khan; Deirdre Lane; Dorone Paris; Dóthain Collective (Darragh Wynne, Caitríona Kenny, Gary Tyrell & Ellen Hegarty); Éidín Griffin; Eileen Hutton & James Haughey; Elaine Garde & Garry Jones; Eleni Kolliopoulou; Elida Maiques; Elinor Sherwood; Emily Miller; Emmett Cathcart & Maya Cathcart; Friends of Ardee Bog; Helio León; Hi-Vis Witches (Heather Gray, Megan Scott, Sara Serpilli); Jasmin Märker, Connor McCrorie (Sporeshore), Courtney Tyler (Hips and Haws Wild Crafts), Josh Clarke, Emma Mckeever; Jenny Owens; John Conway; Karl Logge & Marta Romani; Katerina Gribkoff; Laura Flood; Laura Skehan & Claudia Breitschmid; Lieselle McMahon; Lisa Fingleton; Lucy Peters; Luke Casserly; Lynn Haughton; Mark Clare; Martha Cashman; Mia DiChiaro, Katherine Hall & Sinéad O’Connor; Mimi Seery; Mir Fitzgerald; Monkeyshine; Natasha Ariff & Laura Sheeran; Native Events; Nicholas Brown; Nigel Wood; Noelle Gallagher; Oana Sânziana Marian; Patricia Kane; Rachel Dempsey; Rachel Druett & Laura Merren; Rebecca Tighe; Rediscovery Centre; Rennie Buenting; RE-PEAT (Bethany Copsey, Deirdre Lane, Frankie Turk, Lukas Fraser); Robert Coleman; Roisin Markham; Ros Burgin; Shannon Carroll & Rosie O’Reilly; Silke Michels & Tomasz Madajczak; Sinéad Curran ; Sonia Caldwell; Sophie von Maltzan; Spooky Beore; Stephen Roddy; Steven Doody; Sundara O’Higgins; Sylvia Maher; The Accidental Rapper; Tom Lane & Jessica Traynor ; Úna Keane; William Bock & Tomasz Madajczak.

Seed STUDIO
Seed STUDIO emerged from a recent residency with artist Clodagh Emoe as part of IMMA’s A Radical Plot programming. During her residency Emoe proposed a mission to further embed the artist experience of biodiversification by piloting a dedicated studio space at the museum for this urgent knowledge and experience. Seed STUDIO is an ecological space for IMMA’s Green Cube and addresses an overwhelming need to explore new ways of deepening and celebrating our connection with the natural world. Seed STUDIO utilises IMMA as a substantial urban green site to cultivate, nurture and sustain individual and collective research and artistic practice that foregrounds nature and biodiversity.

Navine G. Dossos
Navine G. Dossos is a visual artist working between London and Athens. Her interests include Orientalism in the digital realm, geometry as information and decoration, image calibration, and Aniconism in contemporary culture. She has developed a form of geometric abstraction that merges the traditional Aniconism of Islamic art with the algorithmic nature of the interconnected world we live in. This is not the formal abstraction we understand from the western history of art, but something essentially informational, and committed to investigation and communication. Dossos is a painter and uses this medium and its history to ask fundamental questions about the ways in which we see, understand and represent the world around us.

Lioncor  
Lioncor is an Irish residential development company set up in 2018 and made up of an experienced team of construction, finance, property and legal professionals committed to building highly efficient homes across the country. Lioncor pride themselves on delivering housing to all cohorts of the market, from starter homes to social housing, and from luxury apartments and houses to Build-to-Rent developments. Currently their new homes pipeline is in excess of 7,000 homes. Lioncor are involved in the #Building Life Ambassador campaign with the Irish Green Building Council which aims to develop a roadmap to decarbonise Ireland’s built environment and half Ireland’s built environment emissions by 2030. Sustainability and ESG are integral not only to Lioncor as a business but to the real estate industry, as a whole. Lioncor’s goal is to leave a meaningful legacy on the physical landscape of Ireland and to play their part in ensuring they have a positive impact on the places and communities in which they work.

Reddy Architecture + Urbanism
Reddy Architecture + Urbanism is a diverse firm of award-winning international architects and design professionals providing comprehensive services from our offices in Ireland and the UK. Our focus is to design great buildings and places that enhance the lives of those who use them. Approaching every project with an open and enquiring mind and taking time to understand our clients’ objectives, we work to create appropriate design solutions that are imaginative, intelligent, cost effective and satisfying. Our chairman is a founding member of the Academy of Urbanism and we are passionate about the urban environment. We enjoy creating successful urban spaces and a number of our place-making and regeneration projects have been recognised with awards, notably by the RIAI and RTPI.

Reddy Architecture + Urbanism is a leader in the field of architectural design and construction. We believe in designing the entire life of the building from inception through to occupation. Our buildings create successful spaces and places to that enhance peoples quality of life.

IMMA presents Kind Words Can Never Die, a visually stunning new site-specific installation created by Navine G. Dossos for IMMA’s iconic 17th century courtyard. Commissioned as part of IMMA Outdoors, Kind Words Can Never Die transforms the colonnades of the IMMA Courtyard with a vibrant mural wall painting in one of the biggest mural commissions Dossos has created to date.

Kind Words Can Never Die explores new psychological states that have emerged in response to a greater awareness of global and local climate change and was created throughout the month of July through a series of public workshops at IMMA. Inspired by the books Earth Emotions (2019) by Glenn Albrecht, and Thought Forms (1901) by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, these wall paintings explore how colour can be used to express emotional states, and make images of these complex feelings that can be both negative and positive responses to ecological change.

Annie Fletcher, Director of IMMA, on the significance of this ambitious new commission said “IMMA is delighted to illuminate the colonnades with a new commission by artist Navine G. Dossos. Kind Words Can Never Die is a powerful symbol of our emotional connection to the planet’s future in the face of significant climate change. It illustrates a form of collective thinking and emotional registration as we navigate this seemingly unfathomable challenge. This is a significant artwork created for Earth Rising, IMMA’s first Eco Art Festival, offering a visual platform to stimulate the open dialogue and creative thinking which IMMA embraces as we develop our environmental programming.”

Dossos describes the thinking behind her new commission “One of the major issues of addressing climate change is how we visually represent it. We rely heavily on photographs to evidence the drama of ecological degradation, but also on data-driven charts, informational diagrams and other schematic representations to describe something that is almost intangible in our everyday lives. However, these issues also weigh on us psychologically, and our mental health influences the nature of our response. Kind Words Can Never Die aims to bring together our internal and external worlds, to create a new way to think about the intimate effects of climate change, and to shift our relationship to the planet.”

Kind Words Can Never Die was created through a series of public workshops with Dossos while on the IMMA Residency. The contributions from the workshops were gathered and studied by Dossos who used the findings to inform the wall paintings for the IMMA colonnades, creating a collective response to the themes addressed in the workshops. Participants were invited to visualise, in colour, their emotions and responses to themes relating to the environment and climate change. Each person who made a contribution is identified by their first name and a selection of their created colours and emotions in each numbered area on the wall, these include Trish’s Motivation, Ellie’s Patience and Hanora’s Reverence. Dossos has written an in-depth blog on her process of making the work available to read on the IMMA Magazine.

A new IMMA Edition, Kind Words Can Never Die, 2022, created by Dossos is available from the IMMA Shop, Price €350. The edition is the artist’s record of every unique colour used in the making of the artwork. All profits made on the sale of this edition will be reinvested into IMMA’s ecological programming. For further details and to purchase please visit theimmashop.com

Kind Words Can Never Die is available to view daily in the IMMA Courtyard, admission is free. The installation is presented as part of IMMA’s new Eco Art Festival, titled Earth Rising, which takes place over three days from 21 to 23 October 2022. For further information please click here.

19 September 2022

– ENDS –

For further information and images please contact: Monica Cullinane E: [email protected] Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

Kind Words Can Never Die is available to view in the IMMA Courtyard to July 2023.
Click here to visit the webpage.

About the artist
Navine G. Dossos is a visual artist working between London and Athens. Her interests include Orientalism in the digital realm, geometry as information and decoration, image calibration, and Aniconism in contemporary culture. She has developed a form of geometric abstraction that merges the traditional Aniconism of Islamic art with the algorithmic nature of the interconnected world we live in. This is not the formal abstraction we understand from the western history of art, but something essentially informational, and committed to investigation and communication.

Dossos is a painter and uses this medium and its history to ask fundamental questions about the ways in which we see, understand and represent the world around us. Her work suggests that contrary to the mediatic impulses of the present, we must not rely upon, nor constantly reproduce, the figurative language of television, online media, videos, and the endlessly circulating images which shape our shared imagination of reality. Her work frequently emphasizes the contrast between the timeless and the ephemeral, whether in the painting over of temporary murals, her own effacement of underlying works in ongoing series where each iteration is applied over the last, or her choices of material, from traditional icon boards to cardboard and found wood, and the balancing of classical training and technique with a constant reappraisal and critique of the contemporary.

Workshop Contributors
Karen Aguiar, Hanora Bagnell, James Bridle, Zephyr Bridle, Emmett Cathcart, Paola Catizone, Ciara Denham, Grainne Doyle, Trish Duffe, Thomas Duffy, Carmel Ennis, Rachel Fallon, Cathy Fitzgerald, Annie Fletcher, Monica Flynn, Elizabeth Fuller, Paula Galvin, Éidín Griffin, Marese Hickey, Josee Hodgkinson, Terry Hodgkinson, Alexandra Hoppe, Janice Hough, Mary Hoy, Barbara Keary, Christina Kennedy, Owen Kennedy, Navine G. Dossos, Emilia Krysztofiak, Deirdre Lane, Roxana Manouchehri, Máire O’Higgins, Béibhinn O’Higgins, Sadhbh O’Higgins, Ellie O’Sullivan, Laragh Pittman, Sarah Quinn, Evy Richards, Rosa Roach Arthur, Ruth-Anne Ryan, India Ryan, Jennifer Rylands, Leda Scully, Emma Sheridan, Rachel Sheridan, Maria Vncentelli, Peter Willis and Monika Ziel.

IMMA Outdoors
IMMA Outdoors 2022 explores the environment and what it means to be radically public by creating an inclusive meaningful space for audiences of all ages to enjoy. For more information click here.

Earth Rising
Earth Rising is a vibrant new Eco Art Festival celebrating people, place and planet taking place across the IMMA Campus on 21, 22 and 23 October 2022. For more information click here.