TULCA 2020 Volunteer Programme - Applications Now Open

TULCA 2020 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 is now accepting applications for its 2020 Volunteer Programme. TULCA 2020: The Law is a White Dog is curated by Sarah Browne and runs from the 9th to 18th December 2020 across gallery spaces and venues in Galway City.

If you have a love of the arts and want to be part of an energising team then TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is the place for you! Volunteer shift hours are from 12pm-3pm or 3pm-6pm everyday during the duration of the Festival. We ask volunteers to commit to at least 2 shifts during the festival. 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

• Invigilation of the gallery spaces and venues

• Supporting education workshops

Gallery Assistant Gallery Duties: Gallery invigilation, assist with promotional activities, ensure audience are adhering to latest HSE guidelines for social distancing, mask wearing and other regulations pertaining to COVID-19 safety measures across venues.

Educational Duties: Represent TULCA, meet & greet, support/assist with gallery tours, usher groups between venues, support/assist workshop facilitators, supervision support, ensure groups are adhering to latest HSE guidelines pertaining to COVID-19 safety measures

Participating in TULCA Festival gives you 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 values those that volunteer with us as most of the TULCA team started out as volunteers. We seek to provide an enriching, educational, and uplifting time for all of our volunteers.

COVID-19 Safety Measures: The safety of our volunteers and audience is our top priority. We plan to keep a safe environment by strictly adhering to HSE safety guidance as they pertain to venues and indoor gatherings. In addition, volunteers may help us in documenting contacts, taking temperatures, and general sanitization of the venue spaces. TULCA will provide PPE and sanitization materials to volunteers and staff. All audience members, volunteers, artists, and staff will be instructed to wear masks, maintain social distancing, and follow COVID-19 safety measures in all venues throughout the festival.

Join Our Volunteer Team!

Please contact volunteer@tulca.ie for further information.

www.tulca.ie/volunteer

Open Call: Galway x Kaunas Artist’s Residency (closed)

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture are delighted to announce Galway x Kaunas Artist’s Residency Open Call.

The open call invites artists born or based in Lithuania to apply for a four week residency at INTERFACE deep in the heart of the Connemara landscape.

Galway City and County have the honour of hosting the European Capital of Culture in 2020 on behalf of the Irish nation. As part of the Galway 2020 programme TULCA has been commissioned to produce a number of projects throughout 2020 and into 2021 and the Galway x Kaunas Artist’s Residency is one of these projects.

A four-week artists; residency at Interface, a studio and exhibition space in the Inagh Valley, Connemara, County Galway. This initiative plans to create links with Kaunas, the 2022 European Capital of Culture. This residency is an opportunity for a Lithuanian artist to visit Ireland, create new works in isolation, and to help us to forge exciting creative collaborations between Galway and Kaunas into the future.

Speaking about this amazing opportunity Marilyn Gaughan-Reddan, Head of Programme, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, said, “Our programme at Galway 2020 is built on partnership and collaboration, all of our projects have wonderful European partnerships, it’s great to build this strategic relationship with Kaunas 2022 and look forward to exploring artist opportunities between our two cities for years to come.”

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is a multi-venue, artist-centred festival of contemporary art that takes place annually in Galway, on Ireland’s West Coast. Every year, TULCA works with an Irish curator to present innovative exhibitions and events that provoke and energise audiences through Visual Art.

The Residency:
Interface residency is based in a former Salmon Hatchery, a series of long, low-lying modernist buildings on the shores of Derryclare Lough. The facility was bought by the current owners in 2007 to develop a centre of scientific research and development. Since then, dozens of artists have completed residencies at Interface, creating unique projects at the interface of science and art.

What we offer:
The Interface studio shares premises with the Inagh Valley Trust which drives several innovative scientific research projects in the Valley. The residency offers artists an opportunity to engage with a unique environment and be inspired by the research taking place in this spectacular landscape. Access to the studio building is 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday, so it is a good idea to plan your work around this. The resident artist has the use of a 15m2 private space as well as access to 90m2 shared studio space. Accommodation is twenty-two kilometres away at Connemara Getaway, a self-contained apartment at High Moyard. The organisers will provide the successful applicant with a car to travel between the apartment and the studio. It is necessary to be a confident and experienced driver with a full clean drivers license, and good spoken English to avail of this residency.

We are inviting artists born or based in Lithuania to apply for this residency. The successful artist will be selected via open call and will be awarded the four-week residency at Interface. All costs and accommodation will be covered, and a small stipend will be provided. The successful artists will be asked to take part in a mediated online talk/public presentation of their work during the final week of the residency.

Criteria for the successful artist are listed below: 

• Artist born in or based in Lithuania.

• A professional artist working in contemporary visual arts practice.

• An element of scientific or research-based practice would be preferred to fit with the existing curatorial themes and interests of the Interface residency.

• Artist must be available within the proposed timeframe.

• Artist must be able to drive and hold a full, clean European drivers licence (this is essential due to the isolated location.)

• Artist must speak English to at least an intermediate level

How to apply:

Please provide the following information in English:

• Artists CV and biographical information

• Artists statement

• Up to 10 examples of documentation of your work (photography, video and sound files all accepted)

• A letter explaining why this opportunity appeals to you, what your ideas are and how you would propose to use the time at Interface.

Deadline:
Friday 30 October 2020, 5.00pm
Email applications to: daiva.j@kaunas2022.eu
Results will be announced by 30 November 2020

COVID-19 information:
The Artist will be living and working alone in a place of great natural beauty, without much contact with other artists. In this way, the artist will be isolated and compliant with all government guidelines around COVID-19. Interface’s full Covid-19 safety protocol is available upon request.

For further information:
Kaunas 2022 European Capital of Culture - https://kaunas2022.eu/en
Galway European Capital of Culture 2020 - https://galway2020.ie/en
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts - https://www.tulca.ie
Interface Inagh - https://interfaceinagh.com

Announcement: Contributors to TULCA 2020

Press Release

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to present its 2020 festival programme, titled The Law is a White Dog, curated by Sarah Browne. 

Festival dates: 6 - 22 November 2020, pending government restrictions and public health advice.

Contributors to The Law is a White Dog are artists, poets, lawyers and activists: AM Baggs, Éric Baudelaire, Rossella Biscotti, Caroline Campbell (Loitering Theatre), Maud Craigie, Máiréad Enright, Forerunner (Tanad Williams and Andreas Kindler von Knobloch), Michael Holly, Justice for Magdalenes Research, Vukašin Nedeljković, Felispeaks, Charlotte Prodger, Bob Quinn, Sibyl Montague, Kevin Mooney, Julie Morrissy, Rory Pilgrim, Rajinder Singh, Soft Fiction Projects, Anne Tallentire, Saoirse Wall, Eimear Walshe, Suzanne Walsh and Gernot Wieland.

The TULCA festival in 2020 will be delivered in multiple platforms. Like every year, artworks for The Law is a White Dog have been selected through a process of direct invitation as well as TULCA’s annual open call, which closed in late March with 180 eligible applications. Of the 20 artist presentations in the festival (including 3 collaborative entities), 12 were invited and 8 were selected through the open call. There are a further 2 contributions specially commissioned for the book, which will be a significant feature of this year’s festival. 

The Law is a White Dog is a project that recognises that ‘Law’ is not a straightforward force. It is present as a set of representations and practices, across different temporalities and jurisdictions, that requires diverse tactics of response. Artists have been invited to consider their work as forms of address that could relate to legal processes such as bearing witness, giving testimony, granting pardon, lodging complaint, forming contracts, presenting evidence – or steadfastly refusing to speak in those terms. The Law is a White Dog is a project that brings together a range of practices that refute confinement and categorisation, that invent new languages and forms of expression, and who develop new affinities with others.

‘It’s been a huge privilege and challenge to be curator of TULCA this year, and to be in close contact with an incredible range and depth of artistic practice. As the pandemic has unfolded, my priority for the festival has been to spend time engaging directly with artists and finding ways to support their work, in new ways and in dialogue with the concerns of the project. We have been working very carefully and intensely and I’m really excited to share this work with audiences in November, most of which has never been seen before in Ireland.’
– Sarah Browne, Curator

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
The Law is a White Dog curated by Sarah Browne
6 - 22 November 2020
Galway, Ireland

www.tulca.ie

Image: Rory Pilgrim, still from The Undercurrrent (2019-ongoing). Courtesy the artist.

Deep States: Thank You!

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts would like to extend its utmost gratitude to everyone involved in the inaugural exhibition of the UnSelfing Programme, DEEP STATES, commissioned by Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

A huge thank you to curator Helen Carey and artists Dominic Thorpe, Veronika Merklein, Andrej Mircev, Nikoleta Markovic and Eunseo Yi for their adaptability and resilience throughout a period of great uncertainty. It was a huge relief to reopen DEEP STATES again after 20 weeks behind closed doors and we thank everyone who managed to visit the exhibition in Nuns Island Theatre.

We were very grateful for all the help and support we received from the Galway Arts Centre as we prepared to reopen to the public once again. A special thank you to Siobhan Singleton and Tara O’Connor for all their hard work and support behind the scenes. A massive thank you to the excellent TULCA gallery team led by Mary McGraw and the dedicated crew of Wave Maker volunteers co-ordinated by Elena Toniato.

2020 has proved an exceptionally challenging year to date but the dedication and resolve of our team, board of directors, cultural partners and funders have helped enormously. At a time when we need the arts more than ever to open up spaces of reflection, TULCA is excited to look forward to the second iteration of the UnSelfing Programme, THREADS, curated by Sarah Searson in The Dock Arts Centre in October, before returning to Galway in November for this year's TULCA 2020: THE LAW IS A WHITE DOG curated by Sarah Browne.

Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks, including further updates on our UnSelfing Programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture.

UPCOMING

UNSELFING/THREADS
Curated by Sarah Searson
The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon
24 October 2020 - 9 January 2021

TULCA 2020: THE LAW IS A WHITE DOG
Curated by Sarah Browne
Galway City and County
6 - 22 November 2020

www.tulca.ie

Image: Nun's Island Theatre, Galway, 2013. Photo: David Finn

REOPENING: Deep States curated by Helen Carey | Nun’s Island Theatre | 31 July - 8 August 2020

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture and Fire Station Artists Studios are delighted to announce the reopening of Deep States

Deep States

Curated by Helen Carey
Nun’s Island Theatre, Galway
31 July - 8 August 2020

Dominic Thorpe (Ireland)
Veronika Merklein (Austria & Germany)
Andrej Mircev (Croatia)
Nikoleta Markovic (born in Yugoslavia)
Eunseo Yi (Republic of Korea)

The inaugural exhibition of the UnSelfing Programme, Deep States, commissioned by Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, opened on Friday 6th March at 6pm at Nun’s Island Theatre, with a schedule of performances planned to take place throughout the exhibition run.

After one week, Deep States was closed because of Covid-19 and the Irish lockdown - since Deep States sought to explore the complex states of freedom and responsibility, there was something of a pathetic fallacy in this enforced sleeping beauty in a darkened Nuns’ Island Theatre. 

Where the exhibition proposed the unconscious and conscious human responses as battlefields for dominance, it was separated from its audience and its artists from their performances: the outcome confuses, the battle never ends, the struggle begins again. And this, after all, is the human experience. Artists Dominic Thorpe, Veronika Merklein and Red People began their installations and planned their performances to complete the audience’s acquaintance with their work. Because of the changed world and conditions that now pertain, the artists cannot perform - this too seems to work with the world’s suspension because of the virus, however heart breaking for the artists… maybe Deep States will find resolution or maybe it is destined to never finish...    

With the stretching of Deep States into the light as Nun's Island opens its doors after the lockdown for one week, a most human experience has played out while the exhibition slept in a deep state.

Helen Carey
Curator

Artists

Dominic Thorpe addresses sentient information, the senses and the fault lines between what is locked in, what is manifest and what is manipulated. Through video, mixed media, photography and performance, Thorpe explores the matrix between human endurance and the senses, exploring power and vulnerability.

Veronika Merklein suggests the information presented reveals a narrative whose truth is embedded in social contexts and power relations. Response to the photographic works and video works is a function of complex, highly political and vulnerable responses forming the controlled matrix of power relations in society. Merklein’s performance reaches deeply into the audience’s humanity.

Red People - Andrej Mircev, Nikoleta Markovic and Eunseo Yi - trace the scars of boundaries and limits, of ‘spectres and leftovers’ becoming the props of new desire and hope. As the next element in their installation of the text of Everything Divided as a wall of books, their installation for Nuns’ Island draws on the theatrical setting as well as the West of Ireland in terms of memory, absence, and archaeology.

More information on the artists and exhibition can be found here.

Deep States - Reopening dates
Dates: 31 July - 8 August 2020 (closed Sunday 2 August)
Times: 12:00 - 17:00
Venue: Nun's Island Theatre, Galway (map)

Safety measures will be implemented in-line with Galway Arts Centre policy. Visitor numbers will be restricted and socially distanced queuing outside Nun’s island Theatre might be required during busy periods. We ask all visitors to wear a mask during their visit to the gallery. Disposable masks will be available if required, but in the interests of sustainability we encourage visitors to wear their own washable fabric masks if possible.

UnSelfing Programme

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture present: UnSelfing; a programme of exhibitions, performances and encounters with visual art taking place in Galway and across Ireland throughout the coming months.

The programme takes as its theme Irish-born writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch’s concept of ‘UnSelfing’; the idea that in order to find truth, it is necessary to seek outside of one’s self; to be attentive to the world, to be curious about the people, places and ideas that surround us.

Further announcements on the rescheduled UnSelfing Programme of exhibitions and events will be listed on our website and social media channels in the coming weeks.

www.tulca.ie