ANTONIN ARTAUD, the French playwright and theatre director visited Galway city and the Aran Islands in 1937 and an event is taking place to mark his visit.
Artaud has been enormously influential in theatre through his plays and approach to the form. He has also been important outside the field, with poet Allan Ginsberg, bands like Bauhaus and Mötely Crüe, and writers Charles Bukowski citing him as an inspiration.
This Saturday at the 126 gallery, 4 Commerce House, Flood Street, Artaud’s Galway visit will be re-traced, discussed, and commemorated, with a symposium led by Prof Sylvere Lotringer.
Lotringer is Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, New York, the founding editor of Semiotext(e ), and is generally credited for introducing French Theory to America.
The symposium will be structured around an open discussion with Lotringer, in which the question of how writing relates to art and politics. Artaud’s Galway visit will be used as a springboard for other discussions.
Participants include Prof Luke Gibbons, Prof Paolo Bartoloni, Hadrien Laroche (French Embassy ), Vivienne Dick, Deirdre O’Mahony, Ruby Wallis, Gavin Murphy, Michaele Cutaya, and Fugitive Papers’s James Merrigan.
The symposium runs from 2pm to 5.30pm. Admission is free and all are welcome. There will also be a cheese and wine reception. See www.126.ie
