Announcement: TULCA 2019 Programme

Announcement: TULCA 2019 Programme

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
TACTICAL MAGIC curated by Kerry Guinan
1-17 November 2019

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to announce the programme for this year’s iteration of the festival, TACTICAL MAGIC curated by Kerry Guinan, 1-17 November 2019.

Now in its 17th year, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is a multi-venue, artist-centred festival of contemporary art in Galway City and County. The festival works with Ireland-based curators to present innovative exhibitions that provoke and energise audiences into the world of the Visual Arts.

TACTICAL MAGIC explores the theme of magic as it manifests in art, politics, and the sciences. Magic is herein understood as a practical, or tactical, device that allows us to control our reality. The Curator has taken inspiration from West of Ireland folklore to propose magic as a valuable intuitive practice, worthy of preservation in a securalising society.

To this end TULCA is delighted to share this year’s exciting programme of exhibitions and events, comprising 15 contemporary artists, 4 specifically commissioned projects, and 12 associated events across 14 venues in Galway. These include a socially-engaged commission by artist and folklore collector Michael Fortune in collaboration with the Skehana and District and Heritage Group, a large-format public art commission by Dublin collective SUBSET, and a new partnership and exhibition with Galway City Museum. Events range from an all-ages Weather-Reading workshop with Nikita Coulter in Nun’s Island Theatre to a black-metal-noise performance by the Bogs of Aughiska in the Roisin Dubh.

TULCA’s main festival gallery will be centrally located in the former An Post sorting facility off William Street, recently refurbished into an exhibition space by Galway International Arts Festival. Other venues include NUIG Gallery, Columban Hall, 126 Artist-run Gallery, Palas Cinema, The Hall of the Red Earl, Galway Arts Centre, Galway City Museum, Tuam Library / County Council Building, and Engage Art Studios Gallery.

"TACTICAL MAGIC sees art as a magical tool that allows us to access and create realities beyond our own. I am thrilled to announce a diverse programme of exhibitions and events which supports this theme and to welcome these excellent artists to Galway ” Curator Kerry Guinan.

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council and Galway County Council.

Artists

Anri Sala (Albania)
Barry Mulholland (Northern Ireland)
Christian Fogarolli (Italy / Czech Republic)
Day Magee (Ireland)
Diana Copperwhite (Ireland / USA)
From The Bogs of Aughiska (Ireland)
Helen Mac Mahon (Ireland)
Jesse Jones (Ireland)
Katherine Sankey (Ireland)
Linda Pense (Germany)
Mark Cullen (Ireland)
Martina O’Brien (Ireland)
Michael Fortune (Ireland)
Michelle Doyle (Ireland)
Natalia Beylis (Ireland)
Paul Duane (Ireland)
Rajinder Singh (Ireland)
SUBSET (Ireland)
Una Quigley (Ireland)


Events

Launch of Michael Fortune’s The Plants, Flowers and Trees of Our People
Tuam Library - Thursday 31 October - 12.00
Official Launch of TULCA Festival with performances by Day Magee and Mark Cullen
TULCA Festival Gallery - Friday 1 November - 19.00
Samhain Afterparty Celebration with GASH Collective
Electric - Friday 1 November - 21.00
Curator’s Tour - NATURE (all ages)
Meet at 126 Artist-run Gallery - Sunday 3 November - 10.30
An Introduction to Weather-Reading with Nikita Coulter
Nuns Island - Sunday 3 November - 12.00
Art / Magic / Marxism Seminar with Andy Merrifield (UK), Sinead Mercier (IE), Clodagh Emoe (IE), and the Center for Tactical Magic (USA)
O'Donoghue Centre - Thursday 7 November - 14.00
Curator’s Tour - LIFE & DEATH
Meet at Engage Art Studios - Saturday 9 November - 12.00
Keening Garden Door, performance by Day Magee
TULCA Festival Gallery - Saturday 9 November - 13.00
What time is death? film screening followed by Q&A with Director Paul Duane
Pálás Cinema - Saturday 9 November - 18.00
Curator’s Tour - REALITY
Meet at TULCA Festival Gallery - Wednesday 13 November - 18.00
Reading Group with Jesse Jones: ‘Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation’ by Silvia Federici
Black Gate Cultural Centre - Tuesday 12 November - 18.00
An Evening of Mythological Music with Natalia Beylis and From the Bogs of Aughiska
Róisín Dubh - Thursday 14 November - 20.00
Keening Garden Door, performance by Day Magee
TULCA Festival Gallery - Sunday 17 November - 17.00
TULCA Festival Closing Event
TULCA Festival Gallery - Sunday 17 November - 18.00


TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
TACTICAL MAGIC curated by Kerry Guinan
1-17 November 2019

www.tulca.ie

TULCA 2019 Volunteer Programme - Applications Now Open

TULCA Volunteer Programme - Applications Now Open

Do you want to be part of the West of Ireland’s most exciting Visual Arts Festival?

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts are now accepting applications for its 2019 Volunteer Programme. TULCA 2019: TACTICAL MAGIC is curated by Kerry Guinan and runs from the 1st - 17th November 2019 across a multitude of venus in Galway city and county.

If you have an abundance of energy, and want to be at the heart of an exciting team then TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is the place for you! Your time commitment can suit you, however we would ask volunteers to give a minimum of 2 days (across the festival, 17 days) of 3 hour shifts. If there is a particular area of interest you would like to work in, TULCA will do our best to accommodate.

Tasks Include: Preparing spaces for installation, exhibition openings and live events, education workshops.

Gallery Assistant Gallery Duties: Gallery invigilation, assisting with promotional activities, crowd management and safety during live performances

Educational Duties: Represent TULCA, meet & greet, support/assist with gallery tours, usher groups between venues, support/assist workshop facilitators, supervision support. 

Participating in TULCA Festival gives you a real life hands on experience of the time, energy, drive and ambition that goes into the production and running of a contemporary visual art festival. TULCA Festival genuinely value all our volunteers as most of the TULCA team started out as volunteers.

Join Our Volunteer Team
Please contact volunteer@tulca.ie for further information.

TULCA 2019: TACTICAL MAGIC curated by Kerry Guinan
1 - 17 November 2019
Galway | Ireland

www.tulca.ie

TULCA curator Kerry Guinan to talk at the November edition of Wine + Design

TULCA 2019 curator Kerry Guinan will talk at the November edition of Wine + Design, a new series of monthly events launched by Tartare Café + Wine Bar.

On the first Wednesday of each month, Wine + Design will explore the creative connection between food and the arts. Tartare Café + Wine Bar will host a local artist or designer, providing them with a platform to discuss their work, their inspirations, and what it means to be an artist in Galway.

Kerry Guinan will talk about her work as an artist and curator of TULCA 2019: TACTICAL MAGIC on Wednesday, 6th November 2019.

Each Wine + Design event will also see a talk and tasting of a selection of carefully-selected organic, natural, and biodynamic wines. Attendees will learn more about the creative winemaking process and also look at the close relationship between the culinary and the artistic.

 JP McMahon said, “We don’t often think of food in Ireland as being a creative enterprise, but we have a long history of creativity in association with many of the other arts such as theatre, design, film and literature. We want to highlight the links between food and the arts, showing how creativity links chefs, food producers, and the greater arts community.”

Drigin Gaffey said, “We have always had a strong appreciation for the arts in its many forms so when I designed Tartare, I wanted it to be a creative and contemporary space, showcasing local artwork.  I feel these monthly collaborations are perfect for Tartare.”

Further artists confirmed to date include artistic director of Macnas, Noeline Kavanagh; artist & lightworker Finbar McHugh aka Finbar247; photographer Anita Murphy and stylist Zania Koppe of Ginger and Sage Photography; Elena Santos of Just Art It; Sandra Lovern of Lovern Leather Goods; and artist and curator of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Kerry Guinan.

Wine & Design will take place on the first Wednesday of each month from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. The events are free however, booking is recommended.

For further info on Wine + Design events in Tartare Café + Wine Bar please go to: https://tartaregalway.ie/wine-design-tartare-cafe-wine-bar/

Bookings via Tartare Café + Wine Bar. Call (091) 567 803 or email food@tartaregalway.ie.

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TULCA 2019: Open Call (closed)

The TULCA 2019 Open Call is now closed.

Selected artists will be notified by 30 June 2019.

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TULCA 2019: Open Call

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to announce details of its 2019 Open Call curated by Kerry Guinan; TACTICAL MAGIC.

Curatorial brief:

TACTICAL MAGIC describes a process of reification by magic. As a festival and exhibition, it sets out to identify the links between art and magical practice. Archaeology tells us that the very roots of art are in magic. Prehistoric cave paintings, for example, were not merely decorative embellishments, they were acts of hunting magic intended to bring prey into life. It is this magical element, this resolute belief in reality building and bending through art, that forms the basis of TULCA 2019.

Expropriated from the art of communal ritual, magic was historically appropriated by organised religion into pedagogical representation, before being altogether disgraced by enlightened capitalism, which stated the genius of the artist as detached from God. Magic has survived, nonetheless, in forms of transgressive art practice that cast faith in art as a tool of reality. Hence new bridges between art and activism, art and health, and art and science are emerging alongside the enduring representational magic of paint, performance, and sculpture. These practices can be considered tactical insofar as they constitute a particular methodology employed towards a broader metaphysical end.

TACTICAL MAGIC finds its bearings in the resilient magical customs of the West of Ireland (in Galway the Hen’s Castle, Saint Augustine’s Well, and Knockma Hill). Yet it also positions itself in critical adjacency to perspectives that would enclose such practices in an exotic past, reproducible for the gaze of the tourist. Ireland is currently undergoing rapid secularisation, facilitated in part by the arrival of global capital. We are constructing a place where wells no longer heal, statues no longer weep, and giants no longer roam, yet the invisible hand of the market is granted deity-like infallibility. Against this timely and sensitive backdrop, TACTICAL MAGIC seeks to identify magic in the contemporary everyday, including in the rationalist discourses of science, technology, and the economy.

TACTICAL MAGIC therefore, asks, in a context of profit-positivism, whether art can create a political space for magical effects. Etymologically othered by religions, throughout history the term ‘magic’ has been flexibly applied to practices rejected by official discourse. This exhibition makes use of this flexibility to gather artistic practices of deviance, transcendence, illusion, ritual, embodiment, reification, redress, and trickery. Historically divergent disciplines and approaches will convene to share tactics that subvert the conventional binary of rationalism and irrationalism.

Given the historical treatment of magical practice, the curator is particularly keen to hear from perspectives that have been hitherto excluded from artistic and religious canons.

Open Call Process & Guidelines:

TULCA is curated through direct invitation and an Open Call process. The final selection of artworks will be based on thematic connection, artistic quality, and feasibility.

Selections are made by the curator in consultation with the TULCA producer.

Application Process:

Deadline: 6th May 2019 6pm (GMT)

Please send a single PDF attachment (15mb max) that includes the following information:

(Items 1 - 4 are obligatory)

1. A concise artist’s statement (max 250 words)

2. CV (max 2 pages)

3. Examples of previous work (no more than 10 images; each image of existing work must include the title, its dimensions, the material/medium, the date and your name, and also information on where the work has been shown, if applicable). Web links of up to 2 video works can be sent, accessible at either YouTube or Vimeo - you must include passwords for any private videos and works longer than 5 minutes must be abridged

4. A clearly outlined proposal of work to be exhibited and its installation and technical requirements, which should not exceed 250 words. Please include photographs or videos of the work (3 max)

5. (Optional) Where new work is being proposed please include a clear outline text not to exceed 250 words. Please include any sketches or visualisations in the PDF document and any available information on costings, materials, technical and venue requirements

Applications should be submitted via email to opencall@tulca.ie

Notes for Applicants:

TULCA is a focused visual arts festival with limited resources, so please bear this in mind in developing your proposal. TULCA typically takes place across a range of art and non-art venues, such as Galway Arts Centre, NUIG Gallery, University Hospital, 126 Gallery and off-site locations. If you develop a proposal for a specific location or context, we cannot guarantee its availability or feasibility. We encourage artists to take a flexible approach in this regard to allow for a variety of options developed through discussion with the curator.

We will confirm receipt of all applications. Selected artists will be notified no later than 30th June 2019.

We regret we are not able to give individual feedback regarding unsuccessful applications.

There is no submission fee

TULCA is a unique festival that provides the opportunity for artists to engage with a wide audience in new and unusual ways. As well as an artist fee, we offer curatorial and artistic development, technical support and a significant press, marketing and audience campaign. A fully illustrated catalogue with commissioned essays. A dynamic programme of education within primary and secondary schools and third level institutions. The festival also offers an extraordinary chance to build new collaborations and extend your network with artists nationally and internationally.

Artists are welcome to propose the presentation of existing works or the production of new work. Work must not have been previously exhibited in Galway.

Artists curated through this open call are responsible for the transport/delivery and collection of their work. All applicants should be aware that, if selected, they will be required to do press and promotion work as necessary.

TULCA reserve the right to photograph works and to use elements of accepted entries for exhibition for publicity purposes, unless the artist expressly states the contrary in writing. Copyright of all work remains the property of the artist.

For any further queries please contact Festival Producer at info@tulca.ie

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