Architecture as Resource, Masters Thesis Group ‘Public Notebook’. Click on image to visit.
‘St. John’s Eve (A Celebration of Rights of Way)’, a now annual event in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin will take place this Saturday 23rd June 2012.
7.00pm Field Walk led by Gerry Kearns (meet at the west gate)
From 8.00pm Music and fireside conversations including contributions by Ronan Foley, Leeann Lane, Ailbhe Murphy, Eilis McDonald, Nell Regan and Micheal Wardick.
Access will be via the west gate entrance to the Royal Hospital (near Kilmainham Gaol).
Weather permitting, this outdoor event will take place in the Hospital Meadow. Please bring appropriate clothing and footwear.
Originally the site of St. John’s monastery, the tradition of celebrating St. John’s Eve (Midsummer Bonfire Night) at Bully’s Acre, Kilmainham became noted for its ‘nocturnal revels’. Journal’s of the time make reference to what are described as ‘raucous’ celebrations. Traditionally common land (and a pauper graveyard) Bully’s Acre, and more specifically the rowdy celebration of St. John’s Eve, became the pinch point of tensions between the local ‘Liberty Boys’ and the Royal Hospital governors following the building of the Royal Hospital in 1680. Efforts by the governance to put an end to the tradition were thwarted by the public right of way which ran through the hospital fields. The St. John’s Eve celebration became an event through which the local population annually exercised and activated this right of way through the Royal Hospital Grounds.
‘St. John’s Eve (A Celebration of Rights of Way)’ is an annual event through which this public right of way and tradition of public bonfire is temporarily uncovered. In 2012 ‘St John’s Eve’ will comprise a field walk, outdoor fireside conversations and music. Some refreshments will be served. BYOB welcome.
The ‘St John’s Eve’ project is an ongoing partnership between Culturstruction and the Education and Community Department at IMMA. The project was initiated by Culturstruction (Jo Anne Butler and Tara Kennedy) in 2011 as part of a research residency exploring public engagement with the place of IMMA and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
Note: There is no vehicular access to the Royal Hospital via the west gate so there will be no parking on site for this event.
Culturstruction with Renate Henschke have undertaken a temporary redesign of the gallery space at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Borrowing from Enzo Mari’s ‘Autoprogezzione’ series, new walls, shelving and seating areas have been created in the gallery space. The design makes use of natural paints, sustainably certified plywood, softwoods and organic bamboo fabric with natural homemade dyes.
Breach, the temporary auditorium space at the Old Co-op, Callan, Co. Kilkenny has been in use since 23rd July for a variety of events including indoor and outdoor film screenings, a teenage battle of the bands, street spectacle rehearsals, talks, a contemporary dance performance by integrated dance company Croi Glan, and the Commonage Seminar. Upcoming events include a public conversation on a future for theatre in Callan with playwright Thomas Kilroy taking place on 27th August, 8pm.
26th July – 7th August at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin 8
Subjective observation of pace and patterns of use at the Irish Museum of Modern Art / The Royal Hospital Kilmainham has led to prototypes or micro solutions for generous uses of the museum building and grounds. An elasticated barrier creates and leaves space – maintaining a safe distance from which to peruse an artwork, or creating an accommodating support for a viewer to rock gently against.
Outside the main Museum reception a leaning table highlights the potential for the formal neo-classical geometry of the building to have accommodating edges.
Drawing on Hertzberger’s ideas of ‘making space and leaving space’ Polyvalency is work in progress resulting from a research residency exploring issues of access to and mediation of contemporary art carried out in tandem with direct investigation into the built environs of IMMA / RHK and its grounds. Between March and June 2011 the research residency undertaken by Culturstruction at IMMA included exploring rights of way, generous spaces, exclusion zones, collective endeavour, raucous celebration and ways in which barriers simultaneously protect and exclude.
Location: Old Co-Op Building, Green Street, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland
Publicly accessible: 23 July – 14 August, 11 am – 6pm daily and for programmed evening events
Bats, cats, pigeons and other interlopers have contributed to providing a new perspective on this derelict building. Breach is a built curatorial gesture for Commonage 2011, temporarily weaving through Callan’s disused agricultural Co-operative Farm Store. Taking an asset-based approach the design integrates locally sourced materials and skills, carefully drawing out opportunities observed in the existing infrastructure of the building itself and of Callan town. Exploring the generosity of potential use whilst also acknowledging safety concerns, Breach is a corrugated galvanised barrier that simultaneously excludes (cordening off access to unsafe areas of the site) and accommodates (providing sheltered seating and performance spaces).
Breach has been developed in direct collaboration with the Abhainn Ri community festival of inclusion and participation as a space for gathering where the programming of both Commonage and the Abhainn Ri festival intertwine. Events to take place in both indoor and outdoor spaces created in the courtyard arena include music, dance, screenings, and the Commonage Seminar. This project has been directly supported by the Arts Council’s Artist in the Community Scheme managed by Create – the national development agency for collaborative arts.
Nice post and great images about our event last Thursday about St. John’s Eve in the Royal Hospital meadow /Irish Museum of Modern Art.
http://onewildlife.org/2011/06/24/gathering/ - n
Thanks Clare
