Announcement: Revised TULCA 2020 Programme

Announcement: Revised TULCA 2020 Programme

TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to present a new book and two outdoor installations in Galway City during the two weeks of the festival run, 6 - 22 November, as well as the following online programme:

Mondays: TULCA Artists' Talk Series in partnership with GMIT CCAM.
More information and booking here
Tuesday - Fridays: Podcast episodes released online, featuring artworks and reflective pieces.
More information here
Saturdays: Online Workshop Series. More information and booking here

Rescheduling of indoor exhibitions and screening events will be subject to COVID-19 restrictions and public health advice.

“The events of the last weeks involving the seal of records of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission testify to the enduring and contested force of law in shaping cultural memory through generations. Law can protect and defend but also silence. This is an important moment to share the work of the artists in the TULCA programme, The Law is a White Dog.

While we can’t yet open the doors to the exhibitions or host live performances, there are many parts of the programme that will be accessible for audiences to experience from 6 November. These include a billboard in Galway city, the first collaboration between Vukasin Nedeljovic and Felispeaks. I’m also excited that we can share a newly-published book and a podcast series, both of which place artworks in dialogue with lawyers, advocates and activists such as Justice for Magdalenes Research, Máiréad Enright, Maeve O’Rourke, Eilionóir Flynn and Maria Ní Flatharta. These publications and broadcasts from Galway bring together contemporary art and socio-legal research of national and international significance.

New projects are being developed for The Law is a White Dog by Caroline Campbell (Loitering Theatre) and Soft Fiction Projects that will be shared online. These projects involve collaboration with an older generation of feminist activists, and with CAPE and shOUT! youth groups in Galway, respectively. Art happens even when galleries are closed. Now is a valuable time to reflect and attend to those practices, wherever we find ourselves.”
– Sarah Browne, Curator
 

TULCA 2020 The Law is a White Dog Programme Details:

• Nov 2: TULCA Curator’s Talk with Sarah Browne in partnership with GMIT CCAM

• Nov 6-16: Billboard artwork on view in the Claddagh by Vukasin Nedeljovic and Felispeaks

• Nov 6: Project launch: The Law is a White Dog limited edition book. Available to order online from Kenny’s Bookshop. Order here

• Nov 7: Grey Eminence: a performance over Zoom by Caroline Campbell (Loitering Theatre) in collaboration with Sarah Clancy. Moderated by Megs Morley. More details and booking here

• Nov 9: TULCA Artists' Talk with Vukasin Nedeljkovic in partnership with GMIT CCAM. Book here

• Nov 14: Afterthought: Professional development workshop for artists by Forerunner (Tanad Williams and Andreas Kindler von Knobloch). Supported by Galway County Arts Office. More details and booking here

• Nov 16: TULCA Artists' Talk with Sibyl Montague in partnership with GMIT CCAM. Book here

• Nov 16-22: Usually or Infrequently Indecent or Obscene, by Soft Fiction Projects, developed in partnership with shOUT and CAPE youth groups, Galway. Digital zine available online and poster installation in Galway City Library

• Nov 23: TULCA Artists' Talk with Saoirse Wall in partnership with GMIT CCAM. Book here
   

For ongoing updates, please sign up to the TULCA newsletter or follow us on social media at @TulcaFestival. For further information please contact: info@tulca.ie 

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

www.tulca.ie

Image: Rory Pilgrim, still from The Undercurrent (2019-ongoing). Courtesy andriesse eyck galerie

Call for participants by Soft Fiction Projects (closed)

Call for participants by Soft Fiction Projects

'Usually or Infrequently Indecent or Obscene'

The starting point for the project is based on a range of printed materials (feminist magazines) banned in the time period between 1967-1977, linked to the repression of sexuality in Ireland. The Censorship of Publications Act (1929, 1946, 1967) established the Censorship of Publications Board in Ireland. These laws enabled the prohibition of the sale and distribution of ‘unwholesome literature’, the censorship of books, magazines, and certain legal proceedings. What is the creative and social impact of censorship today? Who decides what is ‘unwholesome’?

Soft Fiction Projects will collaborate with a group of young people in the Galway region through a series of DIY design workshops to create a limited edition print and a digital zine. 

This project is a collaboration with Youth Work Ireland.

More info contact Lisa: cape@youthworkgalway.ie

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.