by Sherry Dobbin // Sept. 9, 2024
Initiated by Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Germany, Zeitgeist Irland 24 is a year-long celebration showcasing the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish arts and culture in Germany. Throughout 2024, Irish artists and cultural institutions collaborate with German partner institutions, venues and promoters. Around 140 projects spanning all art forms generate up to 400 individual events, featuring numerous Irish creative professionals.
A number of Zeitgeist Irland 24 exhibitions and events will take place during Berlin Art Week. Opening on September 12th at Berlinische Galerie with a live performance, Mariechen Danz’s solo exhibition ‘edge out’ explores methods and models of human cognition. Through her large installations and performances, Danz merges established knowledge systems with subjective, alternative and magical perspectives.
Mariechen Danz: ‘Clouded In Veins,’ Kunsthalle Recklinghausen // Photo: Roman März
The group exhibition ‘Turbo Global: Eine irische Erzählung’ continues through September at Schloss Britz. Featuring mainly video works by artists Elaine Byrne, Mariechen Danz, Seán Lynch, Nevan Lehart, Niamh McCann and Michele Horrigan, the show examines the effects of turbo capitalism in an Irish context, giving voice to a range of diverse protagonists.
At the project space Scriptings, the Berlin-based platform Gossip Gossip Gossip presents Lyónn Wolf’s ‘Domestic Optimism III – A Lesbian Squat Isn’t Just for Pornos,’ the third part of the artist’s exhibition series that radically reimagines shared social spaces. The show includes a new sound work featuring performers Pêdra Costa, Transboy Dom and Line Skywalker Karlströmthat. It revisits Ballymun Towers—Dublin’s demolished modernist social housing project—as a site of queer, working-class resilience.
Ciara Barker: ‘Libraries of Rest’
From September 11th to 22nd, Ciara Barker’s project ‘Libraries of Rest’ at transmediale studio facilitates the creation of a shared resource of ideas for methods of rest. Curated by Aoife Donnellan and featuring a soundscape by Mankyy, this immersive installation aims to create an inclusive and comfortable space that considers alternative futures free from the pressures of productivity.
At Hošek Contemporary, artist duo Tom O’Doherty & Kata Kovács present their exhibition ‘All Woven of Dream and Error,’ which explores abandoned railway lines and the emergence of machine learning through film and sound works. The show opens on September 12th and concludes with a live concert on September 15th.
Kata Kovacs & Tom O’Doherty: ‘All Woven of Dream and Error’
‘Saturnalia,’ a major exhibition of Conor Walton’s figurative paintings, opens on September 12th at Galerie Feinart, exploring allegorical fantasy, the realism of sensuality and the provocation of the absurd. On September 14th and October 6th, the artist will hold public portrait-painting demonstrations at the gallery.
Also opening on September 12th is ‘ANIMA MUNDI #5’ at Liebig 12, curated by the Berlin-based project space Errant Sound. Focusing on environmental relationships through sound art and cultural exchange, the program features Irish and international artists in events and walks around Berlin and Brandenburg. The opening event presents sound art by Joseph Young and Irish label Farpoint Recordings.
‘ANIMA MUNDI #5,’ Farpoint Recordings
Beyond Berlin Art Week, the art program of Zeitgeist Irland 24 includes ongoing and upcoming exhibitions and events in Berlin, Leipzig, Wuppertal, Stuttgart, Munich and other cities and towns throughout the country. In the coming months, German audiences will have the opportunity to experience works by a new generation of Irish artists that continues a tradition of boundary-pushing creativity.
