Silence: Dublin Contemporary 2011

“Silence”:
Dublin Contemporary 2011 (DC2011)

www.dublincontemporary.com

With Dublin Contemporary a new large-scale visual arts exhibition is launched in 2011. It is one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever staged in Ireland, a city-wide endeavor that puts Dublin on the map as an international art destination. Taking place every five years, Dublin Contemporary creates a platform that is part of the periodic art calendar of leading international contemporary art festivals. It draws on the expertise and collaborations of renowned curators and artists such as Hans Ulrich Obrist, Enrique Juncosa, Douglas Gordon, Okwui Enwezor, Christine Macel, Phillipe Parreno, Oliver Dowling and Gerald Byrne. Initial Founder and Artistic Director is Rachael Thomas, former Head of Exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, who originated the project.

The first edition DC2011 takes place between September and November 2011. It will host emerging and established Irish-based artists, alongside international artists, to create an experimental experience in the specific cultural context of Dublin. DC2011 will explore areas of intellectual enquiry and cultural practice and will allow visual artists, scholars, writers, philosophers, curators and musicians to propose new encounters between disciplines. The exhibition thus vibrates with temporary life as a gesamtkunstwerk.

DC2011 is expected to welcome over 100,000 visitors, and more than 80 Irish and international artists are participating – with over 50 newly created art works presented alongside some of the world’s most ground-breaking art from the avant-gardes of the previous century.

The landscape of the city lends itself to the exhibition, which interrogates culture on the nexus where the physicality of nature and the urban environment meet. The exhibition will be sited in the city’s landmark buildings, established museums and galleries, as well as other social and commercial spaces, such as tennis courts, libraries and warehouses. The total exhibition space is over 100,000 square feet.

The theme of DC2011 is “Silence”. The concept of “Silence” holds a central place in the social, philosophical and artistic life of Ireland. This goes back nearly 1,000 years to when the monastic communities on barren promontories along the Irish seaboard first tolled the Angelus to mark a time set for contemplating the mysteries of life and death. Silence fell when the Angelus bells rang, a ritual that persists to this day. In this silence, the limitations of time and space diminish, an effect that similarly occurs with the contemplation of art. The theme was born out of a sense of urgency to research the role of contemporary art within and outside of Ireland. The exhibition radically departs from an experience centered on materiality and visuality, towards the realm of the word and the immaterial, in a return to the oral, storytelling tradition. It moves from the object as readymade, to sound as readymade, to the word.

DC2011 will present an exhilarating range of viewpoints that offer new artistic conversations of “Silence” for the contemporary world.

Dublin Contemporary 2011
Tel.: + 353 1 678 7920
Email: press@dublincontemporary.com
www.dublincontemporary.com