If, like me, you are fascinated with the logistics of staging major and unusual events, then you will be thriled with the new podcast which looks behind the scenes at the iconic Mirror Pavilion installation which stood alone as a solitary cultural landmark in the city during the initial stages of the pandemic.
Galway International Arts Festival, in association with its education partner NUI Galway, has released a new podcast documenting the making and staging of John Gerrard’s Mirror Pavilion, Corn Work and Leaf Work, during the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
The podcast, which is available to listen to on all major podcast platforms, offers an insight into how an arts organisation was affected by the global pandemic and how it responded to each of the challenges in an effort to present an artwork of scale.
It charts the delays and obstacles the team faced as the pandemic spread across the globe, including the challenge of getting the bespoke, seven metre by seven metre LED screen manufactured and transported from China in January 2020, as the Government there reported treating dozens of cases of an unknown virus emanating from Wuhan.
It also documents how the team responded to shut down after shut down and looks at the challenges associated with the largescale artwork’s ultimate construction and presentation on a Medieval quay in Galway City in 2020 and a protected blanket bog in Connemara in 2021 as part of rescheduled and reimaged Galway International Arts Festivals.
Mirror Pavilion, by Irish artist John Gerrard, is a beautiful and striking large-scale structure (7m x 7m ), with three sides and the roof clad in a highly reflective mirror and the fourth wall a high–resolution LED wall, which hosts the artworks Corn Work and Leaf Work. The artwork, which is powered by sustainable energy sources, is a response to the escalating climate crisis.
Mirror Pavilion, Corn Work, wowed an audience of over 120,000 when it was presented over three weeks on Claddagh Quay in Galway City in 2020, dominating and yet merging into the coastal landscape, which was reflected in reality on the mirrored structure and virtually on the LED screen. Mirror Pavilion, Leaf Work equally captivated audiences in Derrigimlagh Bog in Connemara as part of Galway International Arts Festival 2021, with the lone melancholic, oak-clad virtual character’s lament for the effects of these human advances on the non-human world and its relentless suffering. Mirror Pavilion, Leaf Work also toured to Australia this month, where it is being presented as part of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, which runs until the middle of June.
The podcast, which also charts the origination and evolution of the concept and the creation of the virtual worlds at the centre of these two unique artworks in the artist’s studio in Vienna, will also be housed in NUI Galway’s Library as part of GIAF’s Education Partnership with the third level institution, acting as a valuable resource for future arts professionals studying at NUI Galway. The archive contains a range of materials such as production photographs, programmes, oral histories, posters, press materials, administrative records, and other materials relating to the history of the Festival and of its artists, events, and memories from over four decades. This new material will add a new digital record to the archive and memory of GIAF.
The podcast was created by award-winning podcast producer Andy Gaffney, the creator and producer of the hit podcast, Promenade, which gained national and international attention when it was launched in early November.
Mirror Pavilion by John Gerrard was commissioned by Galway International Arts Festival for Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture. GIAF is grateful to Culture Ireland for its support of Mirror Pavilion in Sydney.
Galway International Arts Festival would like to acknowledge the support of Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture for funding Mirror Pavilion in partnership with Galway city and county local authorities, and for the additional support provided by Festival Energy Partner Flogas, and the support of Aerogen and Blue Sky Ireland.
