PLASTIK, A new festival centred on experimental film and artists’ moving images, the first such festival of its kind in Ireland, will be launched next week in Galway city.
The festival will run throughout February in three locations across the country, with the official launch taking place in An Taibhdhearc Theatre, Middle Street, on Friday January 16 at 6pm.
Over the course of three weekends, venues in Galway (February 7 ), Cork (February 13 to 15 ), and Dublin (February 20 to 22 ), will host work by international and Irish artists, such as Brad Butler, Luis Recoder, Sandra Gibson, and David Gatten, along with films from Chris Marker, Harun Farocki, and the 2014 Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell.
“The recent designation of Galway as a UNESCO city of film is an international recognition for Galway as a place that supports and nurtures film in all its forms,” says Megs Morley, curator of the Galway strand of the PLASTIK programme. “PLASTIK highlights the unique role of artists working in moving image and film by bringing some of the most innovative and important international artists and films to Galway.”
As part of next week’s festival launch, there will be a panel discussion on the production, distribution, and exhibition of artist films, and what Galway’s UNESCO City of Film status could mean for artists working in that medium.
The discussion is co-ordinated by the PLASTIK’s Galway curator Megs Morley and will be chaired by PLASTIK curator Daniel Fitzpatrick. The panellists include Tracy Geraghty (Solas Galway Picture Palas ), Rod Stoneman (NUIG’s Huston School of Film & Digital Media ), Declan Gibbons (Galway Film Centre ), Maeve Mulrennan (Galway Arts Centre ), Celine Curtin (GMIT Centre for Creative Arts ), artist Gareth Kennedy, and Wild Screen’s Louise Manifold and Úna Quigley.
For more information see www.plastikfestival.com The Galway PLASTIK festival box office is at An Taibhdhearc (www.antaibhdhearc.com ).
