EVA International,Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art, is pleased to announce the 57international artists who will participate in the 2016 edition, titled Still (the) Barbarians, whichopened to the public on Saturday 16 April 2016.
Still (the) BarbariansThe event is curated by Koyo Kouoh, the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, Dakar and the curator of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York. Art projects have beenselected from proposals, and exhibitions will take place at Limerick City Gallery of Art, Cleeve’s Condensed Milk Factory and various locations acrossLimerick.
“And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?They were, those people, a kind of solution.”– from Waiting for the Barbarians, C. P. Cavafy (1898), trans. E. Keeley and P. Sherrard
EVA International 2016 will take place alongside the 1916 Easter Rising centenary celebrations; and responding to this context, Still (the) Barbarians will investigate the postcolonial condition of Ireland as a point of departure from where artistic reflections, critical redefinition and political transformations will be articulated. The 1916 Easter Rising is a highly significant point in Ireland’s struggle for independence from British rule and the centenary of the Rising in 2016 will be a year of national celebrations. From this perspective, EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial offers a unique opportunity for reflection, comparison and questioning. In developing the curatorial project for Limerick during the centenary, Koyo Kouoh was very conscious of Ireland’s long and complex relationship with colonialism, while also reflecting on her personal experience with the legacy of colonialism as an African.
“Ireland is the first and foremost laboratory of the British colonial enterprise, that was subsequently exported across the globe. Colonialism’s physicality of domination, in terms of the shaping of architecture, civic space and the wider landscape; is accompanied by a psychological domination through the imposition of language, social structures, religion and prejudice. These are enduring considerations that continue to shape the world around us. However Still (the) Barbarians is not an exhibition embedded in the past, but the past is always present, and the future never really arrives.”
Koyo Kouoh.
In addition to the exhibition programme, a Federation of organizations across Ireland will host satellite projects and events in affiliation with Still (the) Barbarians, including Murder Machine curated by London-based Cameroonian curator Christine Eyene in collaboration with Ormston House, Limerick and a new partnership with IMMA | Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. An Activation programme will provide opportunities for discourse and dialogue in response to the exhibition, and Young EVA, with curator Katy Fitzpatrick and philosopher Aislinn O’Donnell, will facilitate a series of workshops between children, young people and participating artists. The Still (the) Barbarians programme will culminate with a Colloquium and Poets’ Recital co-curated by Koyo Kouoh and Rasha Salti.
EVA International is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Limerick City and County Council Arts Office; the organization works in close partnership with Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick School of Art and Design, Limerick Institute of Technology. Still (the) Barbarians is supported by the JP McManus Benevolent Fund, the Embassy of France in Ireland along with other trusts, foundations and patrons.
Participating artists:Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA) / Pio Abad (Philippines/UK) / Larry Achiampong & David Blandy (UK) / Philip Aguirre y Otegui (Belgium) / Kader Attia (France/Algeria) / Kostas Bassanos (Greece) / Eric Baudelaire (France) / Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (Turkey) / Catarina Simão (Portugal) / Johannes Phokela (South Africa) / Sarah Pierce (Ireland/USA) / Kemang Wa Lehulere (South Africa) / Leung Chi Wo (Hong Kong) / Journal Rappé (Senegal) / Criodhna Costello (Ireland) / Jonathan Cummins (Ireland) / Godfried Donkor (UK/Ghana) / Samuel Erenberg (USA) / Theo Eshetu (UK/Ethiopia) / Mary Evans (UK) / Tom Flanagan and Megs Morley (Ireland) / Liam Gillick (UK) / Yong Sun Gullach (Denmark) / Carsten Höller (Belgium) / Dorothy Hunter (Northern Ireland) / Jeremy Hutchison (UK) / Joanna Hutton (UK) / Alfredo Jaar (Chile) / Michael Joo (USA) / Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada/France) / Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali) / Syowia Kyambi (Kenya) / Charles Lim Yi Yong (Singapore) / Alice Maher (Ireland) / Bradley McCallum (USA) / Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh) / Pádraic E. Moore (Ireland) / Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria) / Uriel Orlow (UK/Switzerland) / Ulrike Ottinger (Germany) / Alan Phelan (Ireland) / Deirdre Power and Softday (Ireland/Sweden) / Public Studio (Canada) / Ican Ramageli (Senegal) / Amanda Rice (Ireland) / Willem de Rooij (The Netherlands) /Tracey Rose (South Africa) / Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor (Romania) / Vo Tran Chau (Vietnam) / John Waid (UK)
