EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial: Still (the) Barbarians

“Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.”
from Waiting for the Barbarians, C. P. Cavafy, trans. E. Keeley and P. Sherrard

EVA International – Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art, is pleased to announce the 57 international artists who will participate in the 2016 edition—Still (the) Barbarians—that opens to the public Saturday 16 April 2016. Still (the) Barbarians is curated by Koyo Kouoh, the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, Dakar and the curator of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York. Artists’ projects have been selected through an open and invited call for proposals, and exhibitions will take place at Limerick City Gallery of Art, Cleeve’s Condensed Milk Factory and various locations across Limerick.

Still (the) Barbarians participating artists:
Pio Abad (Philippines/UK) / Larry Achiampong and David Blandy (UK) / Philip Aguirre y Otegui (Belgium) / Kader Attia (France/Algeria) / Kostas Bassanos (Greece) / Eric Baudelaire (France) / Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (Turkey) / Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA) / Criodhna Costello (Ireland) / Jonathan Cummins (Ireland) / Godfried Donkor (UK/Ghana) / Samuel Erenberg (USA) / Theo Eshetu (UK/Ethiopia) / Mary Evans (UK) / Tom Flanagan and Megs Morley (Ireland) / Liam Gillick (UK) / Yong Sun Gullach (Denmark) / Carsten Höller (Belgium) / Dorothy Hunter (Northern Ireland) / Jeremy Hutchison (UK) / Joanna Hutton (UK) / Alfredo Jaar (Chile) / Michael Joo (USA) / Journal Rappé (Senegal) / Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada/France) / Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali) / Syowia Kyambi (Kenya) / Kemang Wa Lehulere (South Africa) / Leung Chi Wo (Hong Kong) / Charles Lim Yi Yong (Singapore) / Alice Maher (Ireland) / Bradley McCallum (USA) / Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh) / Pádraic E. Moore (Ireland) / Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria) / Uriel Orlow (UK/Switzerland) / Ulrike Ottinger (Germany) / Alan Phelan (Ireland) / Johannes Phokela (South Africa) / Sarah Pierce (Ireland/USA) / Deirdre Power and Softday (Ireland/Sweden) / Public Studio (Canada) / Ican Ramageli (Senegal) / Amanda Rice (Ireland) / Willem de Rooij (The Netherlands) / Tracey Rose (South Africa) / Catarina Simão (Portugal) / Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor (Romania) / Vo Tran Chau (Vietnam) / John Waid (UK)

EVA International 2016 will take place alongside the 1916 Easter Rising centenary celebrations; responding to this context, Still (the) Barbarians will investigate the post-colonial condition of Ireland as a point of departure from where artistic reflections, critical redefinitions and political transformations will be articulated. The 1916 Easter Rising is a highly significant point in Ireland’s struggle for independence from British rule, and the centenary of the Rising in 2016 will be a year of national celebrations. From this perspective, EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial offers a unique opportunity for reflection, correspondence and questioning. In developing the curatorial project for Limerick during the centenary, Koyo Kouoh was very conscious of Ireland’s long and complex relationship with colonialism, while also reflecting on her personal experience with the legacy of colonialism as an African.

“Ireland is the first and foremost laboratory of the British colonial enterprise, that was subsequently exported across the globe. Colonialism’s physicality of domination, in terms of the shaping of architecture, civic spaces and the wider landscape, is accompanied by a psychological domination through the imposition of language, social structures, religion and prejudice. These are enduring considerations, that continue to shape the world around us. However, Still (the) Barbarians is not an exhibition embedded in the past, but the past is always present, and the future never really arrives.”
–Koyo Kouoh

In addition to the exhibition programme, a Federation of organizations across Ireland will host satellite projects and events in affiliation with Still (the) Barbarians, including Murder Machine curated by London-based Cameroonian curator Christine Eyene in collaboration with Ormston House, Limerick and a new partnership with IMMA | Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. An Activation programme will provide opportunities for discourse and dialogue in response to the exhibition, and Young EVA, with education curator Katy Fitzpatrick and philosopher Aislinn O’Donnell, will facilitate a series of workshops between children, young people and participating artists. The Still (the) Barbarians programme will conclude with a Colloquium and Poets’ Recital co-curated by Koyo Kouoh and Rasha Salti.

EVA International is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Limerick City and County Council Arts Office; the organization works in close partnership with Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick 2020 and Limerick School of Art and Design, Limerick Institute of Technology. Still (the) Barbarians is supported by the JP McManus Benevolent Fund, Clancourt Group, the Embassy of France in Ireland along with other trusts, foundations and patrons.

For further information please see www.eva.ie or click here to apply for press accreditation.
 

Press enquiries:
Sophie da Gama Campos at Pelham Communications: sophie@pelhamcommunications.com or T +44 (0) 208 969 3959
or Emma Dwyer at EVA International: emma@eva.ie