re : public

Main launch event: 4th February, 6-8pm Construction from 19th January

Temple Bar Gallery & Studios is pleased to present re : public, an exhibition and series of events through which the crucial question will be asked – can something happen in public again?

In collaboration with GradCAM, the Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media in Dublin, and guest curator Daniel Jewesbury, the gallery at TBG&S will become a forum where the public can meet with a range of artists and thinkers to reconsider the troubled relationship between art and society. The project aims to look again at preconceptions concerning ‘publicness’, and to debate whether there is even anything left that we can call a ‘public sphere’. After the fiasco of the property crash, participants have been invited to look again at the role played by architecture and urban planning in the construction of physical public space. In a world controlled by globalised markets that are loyal to no nation can we still talk of meaningful democratic participation in the political public sphere? And if so, is there any room, or any need, for the involvement of artists?

Between 19 and 26 January, artist Robert Anderson and architect Mark Hackett will be building a structure that fills the gallery, and which will be both a frame and a stage for the events that come after. Artist Dan Shipsides will then ‘intervene’ in this structure for one week, modifying and subverting its design so that it is not just a neutral background, but an active element in the ensuing discussions.

From 4 February, a wide range of artists, writers, activists and academics will host provocations including screenings, talks, workshops and performances in the space and around the city, all open to public participation. Participants include Croatian artist Igor Grubi? (featured in this year’s Istanbul Biennale); writer Owen Hatherley (author of the acclaimed book ‘Militant Modernism’); influential theorist of the public sphere Simon Sheikh; and artists Mark Orange and Seamus Nolan. Additionally, artists and researchers at GradCAM, NCAD, DIT, UCD and the University of Ulster will occupy the space and open it out to the public through a number of activations and engagements.

Finally, between 6 and 12 March, artist Peter Liversidge will ‘decommission’ the structure and the materials that have accumulated over the course of the events, returning the gallery to an empty space before a special closing event on 13 March.

Updates on the project, including a full list of participants and a detailed calendar of events, will be available at www.gradcam.ie/re_public.php.

re : public
Kurator: Daniel Jewesbury

Künstler: Igor Grubic, Owen Hatherley, Peter Liversidge, Aisling O´Beirn, Dennis McNulty, Nina Power, Robert Anderson, Mark Hackett, Sandra Johnston, Mark Orange, Simon Sheikh, The Thamesmead Archive , Robert Porter, Leigh French, Neil Gray, Dan Shipsides, Seamus Nolan, Dead Public , Amanda Ralph, Linda Doyle, MA Art in the Contemporary World , MA Art in Public - Ulster