Ireland’s International Festival of Photography & Image Culture.

PhotoIreland Festival 2020:ON/OFF

2020.photoireland.org/ @PhotoIrelandFST

The 2020 PhotoIreland Festival: On/Off

The 11th iteration of the PhotoIreland Festival took place on a digital medium—combining both offline and online exhibitions while refocusing attention towards the political potential of print mediums. Entitled and themed On/Off, this edition of the festival centers around adaptation, change, and space—remaining optimistic and creative during the height of the pandemic. 

Much in the ways our lives were seemingly put on pause during the height of the pandemic, switching from “on” to “off,” it is critical to note that the very shifting enforced not only a change of place and routine, but allowed for a shift in perspective. Under the strain of the pandemic, already cracked social institutions began to openly exhibit failings and harms of capitalism. On zoom, we recognized the inequities of the education system. Waiting for treatment, we reckoned with the failings of the healthcare system. Globally, we became attuned towards heightened acts of police brutality and their impact on the Black community. In a period of “off” we all became more “on” than ever—more aware, more consciousness, more active socially and politically. We all responded to 2020 with individual protests, art, mutual aid, and forging digital connections. 

We welcome you to the digital archive of the festival. We encourage you to flip through the exhibits, to switch from “off” to “on.” 

Key Dates, Events and Locations

• July 8th: Festival Launch 
• Overall Festival Dates: July 8th-August 25th, 2020
• Artists Talk Series: July 9th and 15th
• Primary Location: Online and The Library Project, Temple Bar

The Festival

The nature of the PhotoIreland Festival is defined by its plasticity, not its rigidity. Meaning, the format of the festival changes yearly in by its inclusions and in its nature. Adapting quickly to the pandemic, this festival not only takes place digitally, but questions and confronts the digital world itself. Presenting Screen Walks: a sort of studio visit crossed at times with live performance, looking at artists and researchers using the screen as their medium, we have collaborated with The Photographer’s Gallery London and Fotomuseum Winterthur to curate two “exhibits’ ‘ for the festival. Furthermore, this festival features an exclusive, limited edition screening examining the exigence of art. Coupled with these universal digital efforts, we may have forgotten a great medium that has returned once and again to claim its importance: print publishing. In this way, we launch a new effort to present further content from the festival offline, within the pages of OVER journal, a new publication by PhotoIreland. In the midst of the digital, the Tokyo International Photography Competition makes a stop for a showcase at the Library Project, a PhotoIreland storefront and gallery in Temple Bar.  

Thematically, we examine the digital.  In this realm, and with digital corporations being presently and by far the biggest collectors of images – at times with dubious philanthropic aims – we look at some of the issues that arise with the reuse of such imagery in virtual scenarios. This year, we examine the flexibility of an image, the power dynamics and reinforcement of western capital through digital imagery, and so much more. 

Main Exhibitions

• “The Non-Imaginary Museum” (SITUATION #202), Mario Santamaría: A collaboration with Fotomuseum Winterthur, the SITUATIONS exhibit is a proactive reaction to adapt decisively and more quickly to changes within photographic culture, reframing the idea of an exhibition and exhibition space. Exhibition #202 features the work of Mario Santamaría as he exposes the problematic of copyright infringements that ultimately resulted in blurred images and thus ruptures in Google Arts & Culture’s promise of endless accessibility and freedom of movement through virtual documentation. This digital exhibit provides insight into his practice and over seven years of experience in exploring museums online, a virtual journey around iconic cultural landmarks, copyright violations, and other incongruities of the platform.
• “The fish don’t see the water” (SITUATION #202), Geraldine Juárez: A part of the aforementioned SITUATION #202 exhibit curated by Fotomuseum Winterthur, Juárez continues to examine the phenomenon of the Googlified Image and embarks upon an artistic approach to institutional criticism. This exhibit is a plethora of mixed mediums, combining screen interventions, performance, and essays to critically assembles the history of the Google Cultural Institute in relation to colonial and imperial practices of prospecting, Juárez contextualises the data-prospecting of art historical collections and its architectures executed by the Google Culture Institute in the form of philanthropy, thus mirroring the very practices from which they emerged. 
• Screen Walk: Conor McGarrigle: Digital Curators Jon Uriarte (The Photographers’ Gallery London) and Marco de Mutiis (Fotomuseum Winterthur) provide a Screen Walk (a series of online streams with artists and researchers) around Irish artist Conor McGarrigle’s practice. This “walk” looks at the relationships between algorithms, data and images through the lens of two of his internet projects separated by a decade, the BitTorrent Trilogy and 24hour Social. The project shows how data underpins everything, as social media platforms use the generation and circulation of images to survey and track their users. 
• Screening, Theo Ellison: an exclusive screening of artist Theo Ellison’s video piece ‘Evolved Display’. The video, with a duration of 4.17 minutes, was available for two hours only from 7pm to 9pm on Saturday 18 July 2020. 

Featured Exhibitions and Other Programming: 

• The Tokyo International Photography Competition 2020: The seventh edition of the competition shall feature the winners and finalists in a travelling showcase. One of these showcases was at The Library Project, 9 July-16 August.

Additional Information: 

• Over Journal Issue 1 Launch: OVER Journal critically focuses on aspects often overlooked that affect the discipline. It is about preventing the repetition of obsolete and flawed structures, as much as highlighting the work of those who constructively are expanding what we still call Photography into new horizons.  

• • Includes a feature with the three artists selected from this year’s open call: Francesca Catastini, Hiro Tanaka, and Theo Ellison, with an accompanying text reviewing commonalities of the three practices and their context in our society.
  • Contains works by the Irish FUTURES Artists 2020: Becks Butler, Garry Loughlin, Mark McGuinness, Shia Conlon, and Vera Ryklova.

Overview

PhotoIreland Festival Archive

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