The TULCA Visual Arts Festival is returning to Galway, starting this weekend. Martina Gannon has more…
Since 2002, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts has captivated Galway city with an eclectic display of sculpture, video, paint, photography, performance art and much more. TULCA is a multi-venue, artist-centered festival of contemporary art that works with Irish curators to present innovative exhibitions that provoke and energise audiences into the world of contemporary visual art. Join us to celebrate this years Festival from November 8- 24th and discover this years theme: Golden Mountain.
Over the past eleven years the festival has enabled the formation of an international cultural network between local and international art circles, artists, curators and art critics. Artists’ projects are selected through invitation and through a national and international open call for proposals. Exhibitions take place in both gallery and non-gallery spaces, featuring projects and events across urban and regional contexts. A programme of talks, workshops and events accompanies the exhibitions and provides further opportunities for audiences to engage.
The 2013 curator is Valerie Connor; Valerie is an independent curator and advisor working with individuals and small-scale organizations in the visual arts. She is a lecturer in photography at the Dublin Institute of Technology and chairperson of the National Campaign for the Arts.
The theme for this years festival is Golden Mountain, Describing the context, she says: There are no mountains made of gold, but we can certainly imagine one and, as the argument goes, once we’ve imagined one it exists. So it’s a paradox. The Golden Mountain is a puzzle. It’s about what we believe is real and what we think we know. It’s about how, in the course of denying something exists, we simultaneously conjure it up. It speaks to the power of representation and imagination to transform our ‘realities’ or maintain the status quo.
In an effort to provide engaging opportunities for the wider community, the festival, as part of its arts education remit will be hosting guided tours, talks and seminars.
It launches this Friday 8th November in The Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominic Street at 7.30pm.
Followed by delicious, seductive sounds of DJ Double V and DAS DJ in the Roisin Dubh from 9pm till late.
Check out www.tulcafestival.com for a full list of artists, events and general info.
This weekend’s events:
Saturday 9th
‘Speedie Telstar Tour’ Tulca Festival Gallery, Fairgreen – 11am/12.30pm.
Join us for the first flight of the ‘Speedie Telstar Tour’ on Saturday Morning. This orbital tour of Galway will begin in the Tulca Festival Gallery and take participants on a journey to the innovation business park.
Discover the historical and contemporary developments of information and communications technology in Ireland and globally.
Duration 1hr 45mins, refreshments will be provided. To book email tulcaeducation@gmail.
www.
Golden Mountain Festival Forum, Druid Theatre – 2-
An afternoon of dialogue, discussion, performance and film with a diverse and provocative panel from the visual arts. Join us in the Druid Theatre to explore the complexities and nuances of the visual age and this year’s theme, Golden Mountain. Gavin Murphy will host a session fueled by anecdotes and populated by the working experiences of participants so that we may begin to imagine what Golden Mountains we want to conjure up and those we could do without.
Among those taking part will be Valerie Connor, Michelle Doyle, Gerald Glynn, Lisa Marie Johnson, Ruth Le Gear, Gavin Murphy and Sean Taylor.
www.tulcafestival.
Sunday 10th
TONNTA AGUS RÉIMSÍ, WAVES AND FIELDS, Druid Theatre – 2-4pm
Takes place from 2pm until 4pm on Sunday in The Druid Theatre. Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith and guests Nuala Ní Flathuin, Kasia Kaminska and Jeannine Woods discuss the transmission and reception of ideas about contemporary art and culture in Gaeltacht context. Examining such topics as the lack of Visual Art terminology in the Irish Language. This is followed by a screening of Splanc dheireadh na Gaeltachta, Last spark of the Gaeltacht directed by Bob Quinn which is a documentary about the Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement.
www.tulcafestival.