(Limerick and Dublin, Ireland)
EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art, inaugurated last Friday, April 13th, its 38th edition. The exhibition presents works by 56 artists – some of them commissioned – across five venues in Limerick city, as well as an extended program in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
Choosing not to adopt a title for the first time since its inaugural edition, in 1990, this year’s edition of the biennial addresses narratives of modernisation and metaphors of power. It is thus appropriate that the piece chosen as a starting point for the selection of works was “Night’s Candles Are Burnt Out” (1927), by Irish artist Seán Keating’s. The painting depicts the Irish state of mind during the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the 1920s, which represented the dawning of a new era of technological progress.
It is also quite fitting that Beto Shwafaty is one of the artists to take part in the show. Known for projects which connect political, social and cultural issues, he presents “Remediations”, produced from 2010 through 2014. The installation is the result of an exploration regarding how certain dynamics and notions of national project are transposed to other supports of communication. By exploring the relations between territorial planning, economics, architecture, ideology, history and progress, the project draws attention to the ideological uses of visuality, especially in the modernist and colonialist discourses.
Seán Keatings’s painting “Night’s Candles are Burnt Out”, starting point to this year’s curatorial choices / On loan to the ESB with permission of Gallery Oldham, UK
EVA International 2018, featuring Peju Alatise, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Alexander Apóstol, Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, Jaime Ávila, Akiq AW, Patricia Belli, Colin Booth, Lee Bul, José Castrellón, Viriya Chotpanyavisut, Steven Cohen, Bruce Conner, Juan Dávila, Patrizio di Massimo, Roy Dib, Rita Duffy, Adrian Duncan and Feargal Ward, John Duncan, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Inji Efflatoun, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, John Gerrard, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Laurent Grasso, Eileen Gray, Claire Halpin, Sanja Iveković, Uchechukwu James-Iroha, Mainie Jellett, Seán Keating, Sam Keogh, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien, Napoles Marty, Francis Matthews, Julie Merriman, Kevin Mooney, Locky Morris, Isabel Nolan, Masahito Ono, David Pérez Karmadavis, John Rainey, Dan Rees, Marlon T. Riggs, Sutthirat Supaparinya, Beto Shwafaty, Mina Talaee, Jenna Tas, Darn Thorn, Top Lista Nadrealista, Nicolás Vizcaíno Sánchez, Ian Wieczorek, Liu Xiaodong and Trevor Yeung
Curated by Inti Guerrero
On view from April 14th through May 27th (Dublin) and July 8th (Limerick)
Various venues