PhotoIreland Festival 2019

Ireland’s International Festival of Photography & Image Culture.

@PhotoIrelandFST /PhotoIrelandFST @PhotoIrelandFST

From May to July, we celebrated 10 years of a festival that has been actively looking at what we were missing in Ireland, and what the world was missing of Ireland.

Exhibitions featuring works by Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Nadim Asfar, Cihad Caner, Dries Lips, Jessica Wolfelsperger, Monica Alcazar-Duarte, Benedetta Casagrande and Leonardo Falascone, Lucie Khakhoutian, Clare Lyons, Yvette Monahan, Aisling McCoy, Cian Burke, Dorje de Burgh, George Voronov, Jamin Keogh, Phelim Hoey, Robert Ellis, Roisin White, Sarah Flynn, Zoe Hamill, and Steven Nestor. Plus the minds of Alan Butler, Susan Bright, Anna Ehrenstein, Alison Nordstrom, Lewis Bush, Hester Keijser, Seda Yildiz, Eleonore Challine, Marco de Mutiis, Photography/Archives/Ireland, and more!

The Museum Of Contemporary Photography of Ireland, at The Printworks Dublin Castle, with the kind support of OPW; a temporary space for an on-going research project that we started this year.

It is 10 years since PhotoIreland Festival launched its first edition at the Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, in July 2010. It was the effort of a large group of individuals and organisations presented as vibrant, friendly, all-inclusive: a festival for all to enjoy. The motto remains the same today, and so does the intention to learn and grow from that first edition, not necessarily in size, in number of shows, or geographically, but instead to grow in our understanding of the practice, of the place where it sits in the context of the Arts in Ireland, and of all the circumstances that affect it. It is the ethos of PhotoIreland Festival to celebrate Photography as a discipline, even when it has become so broad and abstract that its name is of little use anymore to define it. But while we find a better word, visual storytelling, visual literacy, it is as relevant as ever in our hyperconnected society. based research methods, testing new ways of working. It is important to remain critical, not merely accepting and repeating what such an organisation is meant to do or what is expected from us, and we must keep searching for best practice from other great organisations and individuals, striving for excellence Who could have thought that a decade later, Ireland would enjoy a festival with such strong European connections, being the Irish member of two EU co-funded platforms of Photography, Parallel and Futures, for example, and actively collaborating with other European festivals and Arts organisations to provide great content to audiences like you. There is a lot of people that have worked tirelessly together, contributing over the years to the success of this organisation. To each and every one of them, from the volunteers to the staff, the artists, curators and the Ireland’s International Festival of Photography & Image Culture celebrates 10 years It is also the ethos of this festival to support Ireland’s talents, promoting locally and internationally through its programme and its partnerships, the work of artists based on the island. We endeavour to offer them ways to progress in their careers, within and outside Ireland, with publishing and exhibiting opportunities alongside educational and developmental ones, geared specifically to emerging and mid-career artists. Doing so, we ensure that a healthy ecosystem of practices is not silenced by lack of opportunities. For this reason, this is not a festival that can merely appear every two or three years, with fireworks and flashy highlights. This is a hard working festival that wants to make a difference, one that is needed in Ireland, and to do that demands continuity. Our work over the last ten years has undoubtedly impacted positively on the discipline, and we want to keep working in that direction. As always, we will continue with our practice often overlooked Art administrators, to the sponsors, grant aiders and supporters, to all of them we owe our deepest gratitude. This year, we programme not one but three months of events, from May to the end of July, to celebrate them as we celebrate this anniversary. To make it even more special, as this year we started a research project that investigates what a museum of contemporary photography should be like in Ireland today, we are offering a space modestly named the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland. This pop-up space will open at The Printworks, in Dublin Castle, thanks to the Office of Public Works, and it will host the main activities during July.

List of Exhibitions and Events