WHAT HAS gone wrong with our cities? And what are we going to do about it? These two questions will be explored in TULCA 2016, Galway's annual visual arts festival, and audiences can expect the answers to be unsettling.
TULCA, which launches on November 4, and runs from November 5 to 20, is subtitled The Headless City. It will display work by nearly 50 artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers, including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Mark Orange, Liam Crichton, Patrick Jolley, Aisling O’Beirn, Tony White, and Mhairi Sutherland. More than 20 new works on show have been made specially for TULCA.
“There’s so much that’s uncertain about the future of our cities, and the artists in The Headless City have approached the theme with great openness," says festival curator Daniel Jewesbury. “They want to help us form questions and work out how we feel about our own future, not give us any easy answers."
Ian Hamilton Finlay has created for TULCA a 'concrete poem,' realised as a specially created wall painting by Leslie Edge. Mark Orange's Archiwiki will be a website featuring articles on architecture, city planning, death, and regeneration, to which the public con contribute.
Liam Crichton is producing a large frieze at the Fairgreen, made from calico dipped in plaster and the corrugated iron sheeting on 'peace walls' in Belfast. Paddy Jolley's Corridor, one of the last films made before his death in 2012, shows monkeys running through seemingly endless corridors.
Aisling O'Beirn's Light Years From Here focuses on the depth of history in the night sky. Derry artist Mhairi Sutherland explores the archaeologies of military environments. Tony White will perform excerpts from a number of different texts, in collaboration with local musician David Boland (aka New Pope from Citóg Records ).
Booking is also open for TULCA's TEd educational programme through [email protected] or 085 - 7472906. See www.tulcafestival.com
