26 February 2009

TRESPASS: Forgotten urban landscapes



The LAB
brought to you by Dublin City Council

is pleased to present

TRESPASS

TRESPASS is a collaborative art project by Aoife Desmond and Seoidín O'Sullivan that engages research and action with forgotten urban landscapes


Preview - Thursday 5 March 2009 6pm - 8pm

Exhibition continues to 18 April 2009


Gallery Talk: Tuesday 7 April 2009

Stalker/Observatorie Nomade are an architectural collective based in Rome who explore nomadic possibilities within the urban environment. For this talk/event Francesco Careri and Lorenzo Romito will present Stalker/Observatorie.

Aoife Desmond and Seoidín O'Sullivan will guide the event. The intention is to create an engaged discussion into the functions and potentials of wasteland sites in cities.

Trespass investigate and intervene in disused urban space. They research and reveal the delicate balance between nature and the built environment. ‘Trespass’ investigates the different issues around land use and ownership through documentation and performative actions. This project was initiated in Dublin where the two artists are based. They have been working with several sites in Dublin over the last 3 years. They recently were awarded a Project New Work Award by the arts council in 2007 and participated in The One Year Project 2 at The Land Foundation for 2 months in 2008 where they developed a new body of work in response to their time there.

Contact: TRESPASSproject@gmail.com

The LAB | Dublin City Council Arts Office | Foley Street | Dublin 1

T 222 7850

E sheena.barrett@dublincity.ie

10am to 6pm Monday-Saturday

www.dublincity.ie

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posted by Ian Alden Russell @ Thursday, February 26, 2009 0 Comments

01 February 2009

Heritages, spaces and buildings: 'The Wire' Season 3 Opening




Having finally started watching 'The Wire', the quality of the narrative of the show and the themes with which it deals are starting to affect my thoughts on other aspects of my work.

This clip is the opening of Season 3 (originally aired in 2004). In the clip three of the shows characters discuss the impending destruction of the high-rise tower blocks (project housing) in Eastern Baltimore. The Mayor of the city is pledging a 'new Baltimore' where affordable houses would be available in place of the 'failed' project towers.

Visceral and edgy, the men walking to the site of the demolition recall stories (personal and social) that relate/resonate from the towers. Although some may level moral judgements on the heritages that they are mourning the passing of as the physical architecture of their community is forever altered, it highlights the many different heritages that can be attached to a place - both personal and social. Furthermore, I would argue that heritages are not things/sentiments which can be moralised fundamentally. The narratives, spaces and things of drug use, crime, violence and sexual conquest are potent sentiments for the generation of heritage sensibilities.

In the context of Ireland, this is reminiscent of the demolition/regeneration of the Ballymun.

posted by Ian Alden Russell @ Sunday, February 01, 2009 0 Comments