About PhotoIreland Festival 2017

Celebrating its 8th edition in 2017, PhotoIreland Festival brings to Dublin another exciting edition packed with free exhibitions, workshops, photobook launches, and talks. This year, the festival explores how Photography is used to share accounts of personal experiences related to conflict: The Recount of Conflict.

The festival is divided in three sections: Main Exhibitions, the shows produced and curated by the festival; Featured Exhibitions, selected relevant exhibitions that are produced and curated by other organisations; and the Open Programme, all the fringe exhibitions presented by individuals and organisations that add with their spontaneity to the festival flair.

The two Main Exhibitions this year are hosted at The Tara Building, a recently renovated space that now offers studio and shared co-working spaces. These are the first exhibitions to be held at The Tara Building since their launch.

On the ground floor gallery, visitors will enjoy for the first time in Ireland Clear of People, a project by Michal Iwanowski retracing his relative’s escape route from Soviet captivity, crossing over 2000 kilometres on their fugitive journey home in 1945. Michal Iwanowski will launch his photobook Clear of People at the opening of the exhibition. The book was designed by Tom Mrazauskas, and published by Brave Books.

Meanwhile, in the basement gallery, Steven Nestor presents Bellum et Pax, a new installation that gathers images from before, during, and after World War II purchased online, and attempts to rebuild their personal narratives to tell us more about how war and hate is taught and constructed during peaceful times.

The Recount of Conflict will present the works by artists focused on the disruption of the everyday life of individuals, families, communities, organisations, countries, etc. Whether dealing with ‘race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status’, established and emerging artists are brought together in this group show at Pallas Projects.

New Irish Works will bring to The Library Project in Temple Bar the works of Robert Mc Cormack & David Thomas Smith, 2 of the 20 selected artists selected for this ongoing project. Robert’s work looks at the information hidden in plain sight in some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods of London in Facade, while David Thomas follows up on his project Anthropocene with a reflection on satellite imagery and what it says about humanity in Arecibo.

PhotoIreland Festival and Cow House Studios present the second edition of How to Flatten a Mountain, a unique 12 days residency where artists are encouraged to develop a new project that will be exhibited during the festival at Rathfarnham Castle. The 12 artists that will participate in 2017 are Benedetta Casagrande, Kate Petley, Lauren Roeder, Mike Callaghan, Nathan Harris, Patricia Howard, Roisin White, Ruth Connolly, Val Patterson, Valéry Pelletier, Yinon Avior, and Zhao Qian. This promises to be an exciting exhibition!

The Marsh’s Library will host a PhotoIreland Festival exhibition for the first time this year. Tucked away behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral, this hidden jewel will showcase the works from Jens Sundheim – Of Ants and Star Polyhedrons, selected from our open call. Artists were invited to find out more about the Marsh’s Library, appreciate and engage with this specific space, and tease out associated themes like history, archives, libraries, literature, authorship, re-contextualisation and researched-based projects. Sundheim’s work really suited the call, and it is in itself a great project for our audience to discover.

Regarding the Hispanic World is a group exhibition presented in cooperation with the Instituto Cervantes Dublin, with works by 22 photographers: Allyson Klein, Anita McGarry, Basil Al Rawi, Deirdre Brennan, Dick Keely, George Voronov, Gerry Blake, Helena Gouveia Monteiro, Itziar Telletxea, James Forde, Jeanette Lowe, Maurice Gunning, Michael Cassidy, Neil Hutchinson, Oisin Prendiville, Rocío López Martínez, Ryan T. Lee, Sarah Fitzgerald, Shay Farrelly, Stephen Farrell, Tárlis Schneider, and Wojciech Ryzinski. The selected works aim to represent diverse aspects of social, political and cultural elements and themes linked to the Hispanic world in Ireland and abroad.

In 2016, we decided to stop offering standard portfolio reviews, instead, we privately tested out a new structure to replace the traditional meetings with a better format that would avoid many of its shortcomings. This year, PhotoIreland Festival is excited to present a brand new and important addition – Critical Practice Reviews. These will take place 5-6th May

Other events programmed will include the launch of Junior magazine’s second issue, entitled The Freedom Issue, and the launch of Blow Photo magazine issue 15, dedicated to abstract photography.

PhotoIreland Festival is grant aided by the Arts Council of Ireland, and the Dublin City Council Arts Office, and is supported by OPW

Sponsors & Partners

The PhotoIreland Festival 2017 is made possible thanks to the kind grant aid support of the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Office of the Dublin City Council; both organisations have demonstrated their continuous support of PhotoIreland Festival and we are very thankful to them.

For the second year in a row, we also count on the support of The Office of Public Works and the staff at Rathfarnham Castle, where the participants of the residency How to Flatten a Mountain will present their projects. This is an exciting collaboration that connects a rural yet internationally connected organisation like Cow House Studios in Wexford, with the urban audiences at Rathfarnham Castle, all throughout the festival month.

The Tara Building, a recently launched co-working hub for the creative-minded in Dublin, will kindly host the main exhibitions and the Critical Practice Reviews. Theirs is a welcoming venue, clearly ambitious and focused, and we have programmed two great exhibitions responding to the space.

A bit about the background of PhotoIreland Festival

Conceived in 2008, and celebrating its first edition in 2010, PhotoIreland Festival is Ireland’s first international festival of Photography and Image Culture, and the main festival dedicated to Photography in Ireland. It celebrates Ireland’s photographic talents – oftentimes only recognised abroad – as well as bringing international practitioners and artists to Ireland. The festival highlights, promotes and elevates Photography in Ireland – conferring on it the importance it duly deserves. With the motto “vibrant, friendly, all-inclusive: a festival for all to enjoy”, we set out to raise awareness on local and international photographers and artists working with Photography, and to underline the work of those organisations and individuals that for years have been promoting an engagement with the medium.

PhotoIreland receives grant aided support from the Arts Council of Ireland, and the Dublin City Council Arts Office to run the PhotoIreland Festival. The festival works closely with local and international organisations like the European Union cultural institutes, as much as with commercial partners, to deliver a high standard, remaining critical and looking for new challenges with each edition.

The festival has been celebrated every year during the month of July, and it will be celebrated now in May from 2017. Highlighting through a proposed programme, the works of national and international artists, the event brings together the energies of a wide range of artists, galleries and cultural institutions in a celebration of Photography, with many participative events for all types of audiences.

PhotoIreland Festival is back for its 8th edition, having moved in the calendar from July to May. The move was prompted by our eagerness to work closer with local organisations and collectives over the Autumn/Winter period to deliver content during the festival. Likewise, the move will allow PhotoIreland to offer a series of new additions to its cultural portfolio, from courses to workshops and much more, all hosted at The Library Project. More about these, soon.

PhotoIreland Festival has always remained critical about what a festival does and how it does it, evolving its programme towards a more meaningful, inclusive and contemporary offering. Over the last years, we have gathered a lot of essential information and experience, plenty of mistakes and successes, and, slowly, the public will start to enjoy more of what PhotoIreland Festival really is.

Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed, and learn more about the previous editions celebrated in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and find out about 2017.