UnSelfing 2021 Programme: Upcoming Projects
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture
1 February 2020 - 30 April 2021
UnSelfing is a programme of visual art exhibitions, performances and encounters commissioned by TULCA Festival of Visual Arts for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.
Launched in February 2020 with the inaugural exhibition Deep States curated by Helen Carey presenting the work of artists; Dominic Thorpe (Ireland), Veronika Merklein (Austria and Germany), Andrej Mircev (Croatia), Nikoleta Markovic (born in Yugoslavia), Eunseo Yi (Republic of Korea).
Followed by two exhibitons; Threads by artist Austin Ivers curated by Sarah Searson and online exhibition and publication Nothing to Look Forward to But the Past curated by Gregory McCartney with artists; Stuart Cairns, Nadege Meriau, Daniel Seiffert, Tara Wray. Writers: Prof. Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Prof. Peter Knight, Dr Dara Downey, Anna Walsh, Gail McConnell and Sharon Young.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic the remainder of the programme has been further reimagined and repositioned with projects taking place in April 2021.
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:
A VISIT, A CEREMONY, A GIFT
Curated by Kate Strain
New film commission - premiere ONLINE via tulca.ie
16 April 2021, 9pm
A Visit, A Ceremony, A Gift is a new film commission curated by Kate Strain as part of the TULCA UnSelfing programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, supported by The French Embassy in Ireland.
The film focuses on the research and practice of Austrian artist and philosopher Elisabeth Von Samsonow who has been inspired by the role of the White Goddess, and the Deep Ecology movement. Elisabeth von Samsonow uses an alphabet based on trees native to both Ireland and Austria, to create poetry and uncover its’ origin in the woods.
Participating artists: Marielle MacLeman, Ruth Le Gear, Ruby Wallis and Michaële Cutaya, Michelle Doyle, Liliane Puthod, Naïmé Perrette and Sara Sadik; will contribute new work through film, sculpture, music, sound and design investigating the access to nature through poetic language.
A Visit, A Ceremony, A Gift connects distant places by investigating the enduring challenge that all people face. That is, trying to understand the mysterious languages of nature in trees, the open air and the earth.
ARTISTS
Elisabeth Von Samsonow (AUT)
Marielle MacLeman (IRL)
Ruth Le Gear (IRL)
Ruby Wallis and Michaële Cutaya (IRL)
Michelle Doyle (IRL)
Liliane Puthod (FRA)
Naïmé Perrette (FRA)
Sara Sadik (FRA)
The film will premier online for a limited duration via tulca.ie from 9pm GMT on Friday 16 April 2021 as part of a weekend of events to celebrate the culmination of TULCA’s UnSelfing programme. To register for the special online screening please visit: www.tulca.ie
Image: Elisabeth Von Samsonow, A Visit, A Ceremony A Gift - production still, 2021
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:
WEATHER GODS - Reprised
Isadora Epstein with Davy Kehoe, Daniel McAuley, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and Stéfane Béna Hanly
New performance commission
Launch: 17 April 2021
Having been cancelled in 2020 due to a red weather warning, TULCA is pleased to announce the reprise and re-imagining of this specially commissioned work by Isadora Epstein. Weather Gods was originally conceived as a live performance taking place in front of an audience on the Galway to Gort train. This new work is inspired by Iris Murdoch’s concept of unselfing, and its demand that we journey away from ourselves to be attentive to the world, to be curious about the people, places and ideas that surround us. It has now been reimagined as a radio play which will be available to download from the TULCA website from Saturday 17 April.
Weather Gods is written and performed by Isadora Epstein, who, accompanied by musicians Davy Kehoe, Daniel McAuley and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and artist Stéfane Béna Hanly created a performance combining a mythological weather report with a train trip out West on the Great Western Railway. With live musical performance from the titular mythical weather gods, and featuring original scores and some familiar favourites, this work is placed somewhere between an art performance and a memorable piece of theatre.
ARTISTS:
Isadora Epstein
Davy Kehoe
Daniel McAuley
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Stéfane Béna Hanly
Weather Gods will be live recorded remotely and presented as a podcast, which will be available on 17 April when it will be premiered online as part of a weekend celebrating the culmination of the UnSelfing programme.
Image: Isadora Epstein, 2019
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:
TULCA: XVIII
Specially commissioned publication
Launch: 18 April 2021
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts first presented a programme in Galway city in November 2002. The intervening 18 years have seen the festival become embedded into cultural life of the city by presenting a new programme every year that is formed and informed by life in the west. TULCA is unique in Ireland as the only platform reserved solely for Irish curators.
TULCA has supported hundreds of artist’s diverse practices and introduced thousands of schoolchildren and adult learners to contemporary art for the first time. Over the years, TULCA has transformed many unwanted or neglected sites into spaces to exhibit and experience high quality, ambitious visual art.
TULCA: XVIII marks TULCA’s 18th anniversary through a series of new writing commissions, photo-essays and reflections and documents the TULCA UnSelfing Programme for Galway 2020. Featuring contributions from: Áine Philips, Michael Dempsey, George Bolster, Gregory McCartney, Mary Cremin, Matt Packer, Kerry Guinan, Helen Carey, Sarah Browne, Aideen Barry, Louise Manifold, Linda Shevlin, Michelle Browne, Josephine Vahey, Lucy Elvis, Gavin Murphy, James Harrold, Marylin Gaughan-Reddin, Austin Ivers, Susanna Galbraith, Dominic Thorpe, Isadora Epstein, Elisabeth Samsonov, Cliodhna Shaffrey, Sarah Searson and Valerie Connor.
Edited by Michaële Cutaya and designed by Pure Designs, the publication launches on Sunday 18th April and is available for pre-order from the TULCA website on that date. As part of a weekend celebrating the culmination of the UnSelfing programme, TULCA presents an online launch, featuring a panel discussion by TULCA alumni.
To register for this event, visit www.tulca.ie
Image: installation view of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Seachange 2015 at Nun's Island Theatre, with Clare Langan’s Floating World, Maria McKinney’s Abyssals and Ruth Lyons’s Afterings. Image Jonathan Sammon
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present:
CREATE DANGEROUSLY
February - April 2021
Galway City and County
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present Create Dangerously an education programme that explores creative thinking and creative making to empower teachers and learners.
Create Dangerously is a new arts education programme designed for school groups and teachers. TULCA has commissioned three Irish artists to create new artworks for the project. Editions of these works will become permanent parts of the Create Dangerously programme which opens to schools nationally after its pilot in Spring 2021.
ARTISTS:
Donal McConnon
Emma Zukovic
Maeve Clancy
SCHOOLS:
Clontuskert NS, Ballinasloe
Cregmore NS, Cregmore
Coláiste Iognáid (The ‘Jes’), Galway
This project is facilitated by TULCA education partner CURO, who focus building thinking skills through philosophical dialogues and creative activities.
Learners will explore the following questions:
Why do we create?
What do we create?
For whom do we create?
Participating teachers will learn to facilitate philosophical conversations in their classrooms, and learners will develop their skills confidence in art making and creative thinking. At the end of the project classes will draft their own ‘creativity manifesto’ which they will present to their partner artist and local community along with an exhibition of some of the artworks produced in response to the artwork they received.
This project presents a unique opportunity for students not only explore new ways of being creative, but to carefully think through why creativity is important and what being creative means to them. It creates a lasting legacy for teachers through active mentoring in the principles that inform the project.
Register your interest: createdangerously@tulca.ie
For more information and updates see: www.tulca.ie