Location & Meeting point: Off-site, the People’s Flower Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin 8. See map here.
Free, Drop in

Live Reading Performance of Shelter Bread & Freedom (2021)

Marking the closing day of the exhibition, Sarah Pierce Scene of the Myth, live readings will take place as part of Sarah Pierce’s artwork Shelter Bread & Freedom (2021). A community of readers made of individuals who have migrated to Dublin will present short, chosen texts to read aloud in their home languages. The texts range from personal letters and diaries to manifestoes, poems, lyrics, and other printed matter. The readings are not translated, and the audience is invited to gather and listen without (necessarily) understanding the languages spoken every day by people who live in Dublin.

The event is part of the artwork Shelter Bread & Freedom (2021) featured in the exhibition at IMMA. The artwork focuses on the structure of the shelter in the People’s Garden in Dublin’s Phoenix Park and incorporates a series of banners scaled to the shelter’s interior with patterns, cutting and sewing by Aoife McLaughlin and shibori dying and fraying by Clíona McLoughlin. A zine with texts by Donna Rose, Grace O’Boyle and Sarah Pierce is available to read online at here.

Please note this event takes place in an outdoor setting. Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear. You are welcome to bring your own picnic blanket or seating. The event will operate with a leave no trace ethic.

Location: Terrace, Formal Gardens
Free booking required. Booking links below

Paradise, Paradise, Paradise! will playfully transform the grounds of IMMA into the paradise from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Bosch’s weird and wonderful creatures will be brought to life by dancers Aoibhinn O’Dea and Saorisie Sexton and performers Stéphane Béna Hanly and Isadora Epstein who will lead audiences through a labyrinthine utopia. This 30-minute family friendly show features fantastical costumes designed by artist Amie Egan with new music by harpist Méabh McKenna and singer Daniel McAuley.

Performance duration: 30 minutes

Participating artists include:

Isadora Epstein, artist and performer 
Stéphane Béna Hanly, performer 
Amie Egan, costume designer 
Aoibhinn O’Dea, dancer 
Saorisie Sexton, dancer 
Méabh McKenna, harpist 
Daniel McAuley, singer 

This workshop has been postponed – keep your eyes peeled. We look forward to bringing it to you soon!

Location: Formal Gardens/Terrace
Free, Drop in

Artist Sarah Pierce performs Birdcalls (after Louise Lawler), 2014/2023, a performance with vocals and digital print, for this year’s IMMA Outdoors. The iconic work Birdcalls (1972-81) by Louise Lawler sounds the names of well-known male artists in the style of birdcalls. Living in Dublin since 2000, artist Sarah Pierce made an analogous performance with names of male artists based in Ireland. This work was originally developed for NCAD Gallery in Pull Bite Rally, commissioned by Black Church Print Studio in 2014.

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’s work has shown widely in the EU, US and Canada with major exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, CCS Hessel Museum & CCS Galleries, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson Tate Modern, London and MuMOK Vienna.

Solo exhibitions include Lost Illusions/Illusions perdues, developed jointly with Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Mercer Union, Toronto, and SBC Galerie, Montreal, No Title at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Derry, The Artist Talks at The Showroom, London, and The Meaning of Greatness at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. Pierce represented Ireland in a group exhibition at the 51st Venice Biennale and has since exhibited in major international biennials including Glasgow International, Eva International, Lyon Biennial, International Sinop Biennial, and the Moscow Biennial.