THE 2021 Galway International Arts Festival will open with the unveiling of the much-anticipated second part of John Gerrard’s Mirror Pavilion, Leaf Work, in Derrigimlagh Bog, Connemara.
The unveiling will take place this Saturday, August 28, in the 4,000–year–old bog, located south of Clifden and north of the Alcock and Brown landing site. It can be accessed on the R341 Roundstone/Ballconneely Road.
The pavilion has three sides and a roof clad in a highly reflective mirror, while the fourth wall is a high–resolution LED screen. It will host a new artwork, Leaf Work, which will unfold on the LED screen, and which is powered by sustainable energy sources.
The work is accessed by foot on a hard surface, looped walkway, through the bog. It is on flat terrain and takes about 25 minutes from the car park.
Mirror Pavilion is John Gerrard’s response to the escalating climate crisis. He has taken digital technology, usually employed by the commercial gaming industry, to create virtual worlds that simulate extremely detailed and authentic landscapes. The characters and landscapes we see on the LED screen may look like video or film but they are not; they hover in what the artist describes as the ‘slippery space’ between the real and the unreal.
Mirror Pavilion was commissioned by Galway International Arts Festival for Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture. The 2021 GIAF runs from August 28 to September 18. See www.giaf.ie
