Ireland at Venice at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
The current world order of endless expansion, extraction and exploitation has passed. All of the evidence confirms that this approach does not accord with our everyday human needs, or with the life of the planet. In order to transform redundant ways of living, we must de-colonise our minds and re-configure new ways of inhabiting the world. As we travel through the tangible and intangible threads of our islands encountering the forgotten, the remote, the overlooked and the yet unknown, we are led to new vistas. Visceral encounters that are the seed, root and branch of new stories.
Responding to the theme, The Laboratory of the Future – selected by curator of the Biennale Architettura 2023, Lesley Lokko – the exhibition of the Ireland Pavilion, In Search of Hy-Brasil, will present fieldwork from Ireland’s remote islands, investigating their diverse cultures, communities, and experiences. The Pavilion is curated by a team of five architects – Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen and Joseph Mackey. Ireland at Venice, the participation of Ireland at the International Art and Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council.
In Ireland, myth, language and landscape remain intrinsically linked. The Irish language preserves the deep resonances that exists between humankind and the natural world. Hy-Brasil is a mythical Atlantic island that embodies the possibility for the re-imagination of the island of Ireland and its ocean territory.
The curators have studied the island landscapes of Inis Meáin (Inishmaan), UNESCO World Heritage site Sceilg Mhicíl (Skellig Michael) and Cliara (Clare Island) through drawing, survey, film, sound, model, mapping, and story. The installation will offer an immersive experience that draws connections between the social fabric, cultural landscape and ecology of these islands, shifting between the global and the local, the territorial and the intimate.
To raise awareness of the islanders’ management of resources and their balancing of the delicate equilibrium between culture and nature, the installation will have a focus on renewable energy, ethical food production and biodiversity, capturing the islands’ sustainable methods of livelihood through drawing, models, film, sound, writing and language.
To highlight the natural cycle of circadian rhythms and the detrimental impact of light pollution, while mimicking the natural conditions on the islands, natural light will be used throughout the installation as the key source of illumination.
Large limestone slabs of three of the islands – Inis Meáin, Sceilg Mhichíl and Cliara and their related ocean floor – will be on display, alongside a range of hands-on tactile displays, which celebrate the use of local materials in innovative and unorthodox ways. These include:
- A hung linen tapestry mapping the extraordinary complexity and rich topography of Ireland’s maritime zone and beyond;
- An abstraction of Sceilg Mhichíl made from Galway sheep’s wool, a traditionally mill-woven yarn, re-proposed within the pavilion in an entirely different light;
- Clare Island Survey, including a biological scientific study of microorganisms endangered by the climate crisis;
- A sea of interpretive drawings revealing aspects of unique living conditions on the islands;
- A film and soundscape of Inis Meáin, combining language, landscape, ocean, time and light;
- Sea sacks woven from discarded fishers’ rope and filled with the by-product from the production of yarn;
- A graphite rendering of the Pangaea, a reminder of our shared landmass in geological time
The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin T.D. said:
“’In Search of Hy-Brasil’ examines the relationship between the islands of Ireland and their natural environment. It is very exciting to see how our adaptability to harsh conditions over the centuries can show us the way to more sustainable living today. In the era of global warming and the challenges of climate change, it is a theme that resonates globally.”
Ireland at Venice will build on Ireland’s strong presence at the International Architecture Exhibition of La biennale di Venezia. In recent years the Biennale Architettura 2018 was curated by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects. This year, the 2023 edition, sees the involvement of Emmett Scanlon, Alice Clancy and Laurence Lord as Curator Lesley Lokko’s Assistants for The Laboratory of the Future.
Following its presentation in Venice, In Search of Hy-Brasil will tour Ireland in 2024. Recreating elements of the installation on the islands, the curatorial team will seek to create an enriched narrative, bringing voices from peripheral locations into mainstream conversations around our global future. The curators of the installation will publish a book of essays and contribute to a film documentary.
