Artist Talk with Mathieu Asselin and Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo

1pm (Irish time) Wed 21 July
via Zoom

Curator Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo and artist Mathieu Asselin talk about the labour and power of collaborative work, reflecting on the project Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation.

The talk is presented in the context of Asselin's project Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, presented as part of the PhotoIreland Festival 2021 at The Library Project.

LIVE Critical Recipes with
The Center for Genomic Gastronomy

6pm (Irish time) Sat 24 July
via Zoom

Join PhotoIreland Festival and The Center for Genomic Gastronomy in this interactive online event — Norvegan National Dish.

National dishes are attempts to symbolise identity through ingredients and recipes, but identity, farming practices and values are always changing. Maybe each country should choose a new national dish every few years, or at least once a decade. After 50 years, Norway needs another shot at a new national dish. What if Norway’s next national dish only included plants?: A Norvegan National Dish.

Participants in the Norvegan National Dish cooking conversation will be introduced to some of the basic techniques for processing plant-based ingredients into building blocks for a delicious recipe. All but a few of the ingredients will be seasonally available in either Norway or Ireland. We will taste and debate the meaning of each ingredient, discussing who and what gets included and excluded when one prototypes or proposes a new national dish.

Reading Group with Ksenia Yurkova and Corina Apostol

Food as Structural Unit of Politics, Transmitter Of Memory, and Matter of Art
2pm (Irish time) Sun 25 July
via Zoom

Attendees are invited to read Yurkova's monograph before the event, which will be sent upon booking.

This work examines a biopolitical approach to issues of food, specifically hunger and overconsumption. It is studied throughout traumatic periods of history, intertwined with a contemporary ideological understanding of lifestyle, fashion, and wellbeing. The notion of food is understood not only in its material physical and nutritional dimension, but also in its strong symbolic meaning actualised in visual representation, rituals, texts, and memory. The performative aspect of ingestion gives a subject for thought about the role of affects as an alternative expressive channel with a capacity to reach deeper layers of veiled desires and intentions.

The Reading Group will be led by Corina L. Apostol together with artist Ksenia Yurkova, talking through the themes within the monograph. This session is focused on discussion and interactivity with the audience, so attendants are welcome to engage and encouraged to read the monograph beforehand.

Yurkova’s project Spinebone Soup and Stuffed Rabbit is presented in the festival’s main group exhibition Bite the Hand That Feeds You at Rathfarnham Castle.

Bite the Hand That Feeds You
at Rathfarnham Castle

Running 5 July-2 August
At Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Opening Hours Mon-Sun 9:30am-5:30pm
Admissions Free

There is power in how we feed ourselves, with food being the cornerstone of cultures, ideologies, and principles. Eating or not eating can be an act of protest, feeding or not feeding — an act of control; food brings people together and pushes them apart. Through the presentation of current work and commissions, this year PhotoIreland Festival brings to audiences selected artists exploring this contentious, yet every day, topic.

With topics ranging from sustainability to colonisation, from hunger to overconsumption, trauma to technology, ethics to ideologies, and even surveillance capitalism, this exhibition brings together contemporary lens-based works, serving a cornucopia of engaging and relevant material. Featuring work from artists: Alan Phelan, Dániel Szalai, Gê Viana, Hans van der Meer, Hertta Kiiski, Ksenia Yurkova, and Sheng-Wen Lo.

Young Milky Way Explorers Exhibition Guide

Have you picked up one of these guides? Do you have a young culture vulture at home? In response to Hertta Kiiski’s Milky Way installation, Dublin based visual artist Róisín White created an exhibition guide aimed at our younger visitors to investigate and navigate the artwork. The guide will encourage young people (and their families) to take a closer look at the exhibition, to consider the materials used (yes! you can touch this exhibit!), the themes and questions the work poses, and suggest ways that you can make your own artistic response when you get home. The guide is created especially as a response to Milky Way, an installation currently exhibited as part of the group show Bite the Hand That Feeds You, at Rathfarnham Castle until 2nd August.

The guides are available in the gallery space and as a PDF online. Please share your response artworks with [email protected] or you can tag the artist @how_fascinating and festival @photoirelandfst on social media ! All entries will be put into a raffle and three lucky explorers will be picked out of a hat to receive their own copy of Eyes Open by Susan Meiselas, thanks to The Library Project.

Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation at The Library Project

Running 1-31 July
At The Library Project, Dublin
Opening Hours Mon-Fri 11am-6pm | Sat-Sun 12-6pm
Presented with the kind support of Alliance Française Dublin.

The photographer Mathieu Asselin explores the controversial and infamous agricultural company, Monsanto, through investigative photography in this acclaimed project. Looking at the company’s past and present, this investigation aims to picture what Monsanto’s® near future will look like. The exhibition for the festival focuses on the process of the photobook. Beyond the distinguished editorial object, this publication enshrines an exceptional documentary process conducted for five years through Vietnam and the United States, which portrays an overwhelming portrait of the ancient and current practices of this giant chemical industry. A rare opportunity to see the artist's notes and materials, including the 3 dummy photobooks that preceded the final publication.

Vacancy: Arts Administrator for PhotoIreland

PhotoIreland is looking for the right individual to become integral part of the core team; a highly motivated, ambitious, and focused person with experience in the Arts, eager to progress as the company expands its operations in support of Photography in Ireland. Image: Emilia Krysztofiak

Aesthetica Art Prize

Aesthetica invites artists to enter the annual Art Prize. Open to all practitioners working at any level, including students. Prizes include a group exhibition in York, editorial coverage in Aesthetica magazine and website, up to £5000 prize money, publication in Future Now: 100 Contemporary Artists, and much more!
Apply before the Summer Deadline of 31 August.