Sean Lynch
Adventure: Capital
9 May–22 November 2015
Vernissage: 6–8 May
Official launch: 7 May, 4pm
Irish Pavilion
Artiglierie of the Arsenale
Venice
www.adventure-capital.ie
www.irelandvenice.ie
Ireland at Venice—led by Culture Ireland in partnership with the The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Commissioner: Mike Fitzpatrick
Curator: Woodrow Kernohan
Man was born naked, without claws, unable to run fast, with no shell or natural armour. But he could observe nature and imitate it. He saw how water ran down the side of a hill without sinking, and then invented a roof for his house. Soon more houses and villages appeared, and more stones were needed. Mighty tools and machines were invented. Demand increased. My chisel got harder, my hammer heavier. Villages turned into towns…towns into cities…stone…rock…next stone…next rock.
I saw towering glittering headdresses, and robes stiff with gems, climbing and blossoming in spires and twists with flame-like billowing curves, with courts and passages and secret chambers inside. Everything seemed carefully calculated on the top floor, accounting for minutes, miles and calories.
What fantasy! Such a thing never before shaped itself on the ridge of the world.
And there, at its base, I saw my granite! A thin veneer of stone, there to sanitise and purify, meeting more materials also taken from the earth, all arranged into order and all rising together.
Such shiny armour! As I touched it, I felt connected, and part of a forward movement. The owners of these wonders must believe these stones have come through a special intervention of fate. They must grow passionately attached to them as a guarantee of health and success. Remnants dug up out of the earth are no longer covered and pitifully hidden in mud… *
*Script excerpts from Adventure: Capital.
Adventure: Capital is a new artwork by Sean Lynch, specially commissioned by Ireland at Venice for the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015. Utilising video and sculpture, Lynch’s project traces a journey around Ireland and Britain, following a wandering spirit encountering the hegemonic structures that anchor contemporary life and entwined flows of capital, migration and neoliberal spatiality.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual (English / Italian) publication with text by Woodrow Kernohan and contributions by Wayne Daly and Sean Lynch.
Ireland at Venice 2015 is supported by Culture Ireland; The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon; Embassy of Ireland / Ambasáid na hÉireann; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Limerick Institute of Technology, Limerick School of Art and Design; EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial; The Model, Sligo; Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast; Maurice Ward Art Handling; Limerick City and County Council Arts Office; Limerick National City of Culture 2014; Wexford County Council; British Council Northern Ireland; Ronchini Gallery, London; ArtReview; Peroni; Askeaton Contemporary Arts; Irish Wire Products.
Subsequent to its presentation at La Biennale di Venezia, Adventure: Capital will tour throughout Ireland during 2016.
For further information, please contact:
International Press & PR
Emma Gilhooly & Sophie Campos at Pelham Communications
T +44 (0) 208 969 3959 / emma [at] pelhamcommunications.com / sophie [at] pelhamcommunications.com
Irish Pavilion
hello [at] adventure-capital.ie
