A contemporary art event to draw in the whole city

Dublin Contemporary 2011 has been a labour of love, but it may reap rewards for Irish artists internationally, writes AIDAN DUNNE

IN A WAY, Dublin Contemporary 2011, announced by Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin yesterday, is a delayed successor to Rosc, the series of exhibitions of contemporary art that were initiated by the architect Michael Scott and held in Dublin from 1967, more or less every four years, until 1988. In its early stages Rosc filled a huge gap in introducing international contemporary art to the wider Irish public. With the advent of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1991, and the much greater prevalence of international exhibitions throughout the country, that gap might seem to no longer exist.

In fact, with the exponential increase of activity in the visual arts, here as elsewhere, it could be said that another gap has arisen.

Imma and other institutions’ exchange programmes in art schools and the promotion of Irish art abroad have definitely raised the profile of our contemporary artists on the international stage but, as Hanafin noted, visual artists have yet to achieve the kind of recognition accorded to our musical and literary exports. When they come here, art world professionals are usually impressed at the energy and quality of the arts scene, but Dublin is not generally regarded as a centre of contemporary visual arts the way that, say, Berlin is.

In addition, the number and importance of contemporary art fairs and biennials have increased enormously. Oliver Dowling, who for many years ran one of the best contemporary commercial galleries in Ireland, and was involved in the early Rosc exhibitions, had mooted the idea of a kind of Dublin Biennial from the early years of the decade. From about 2006, he and Rachael Thomas, then head of exhibitions at Imma, set about seriously devising how such an event might be mounted. Thomas, a notably energetic curator, has developed many invaluable contacts internationally during her time at Imma. She particularly notes the positive contribution of prominent artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno to the idea of Dublin Contemporary.

She is artistic director of the event and Dowling is on the curatorial panel, along with Imma director Enrique Juncosa, whose outstanding international reputation is important to the project. The ex-artistic director of Documenta 11, one of the most important international exhibitions in the world, Okwui Enwezor, is also aboard, as well as Christine Macel, chief curator of contemporary art at the Pompidou in Paris, and the apparently ubiquitous curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, without whom, it seems, nothing really happens in the contemporary art world. Another important member of the panel is artist Gerard Byrne, who probably enjoys the highest international standing among Irish artists at the moment.

It’s an impressive line-up because everyone on the panel has a lot to contribute in terms of experience, or energy, or ideas, or contacts, or all of the above. Significantly, it’s a team that seems capable of delivering the big names who people will want to see. Every biennial has a theme and Dublin Contemporary’s will be Silence, in the John Cage sense of the term. The composer’s most famous work, 4’55”, consists of four minutes and 55 seconds of silence, and proves, commentators have noted, that there is really no such thing as silence.

“From early on,” Thomas says, “Oliver and I thought that the event must make the most of the city and get out of the White Cube of the gallery. That’s why it’s so important that it extends right across the city. We want to get people moving through the city, experiencing it and learning about it. For us as well, it’s all about exploring contemporary forms of communication, about how we live now.”

While the theme is there, and a partial list of venues (including most of the city’s public arts venues), the actual programme is not, yet. “We think that will be announced around October next,” Thomas says. The plan is that there will be about 60 core artists in Dublin Contemporary. “Ideally, we’re looking for a 50-50 split between Irish and international artists.” But she also reckons that there’ll be another 25 to 30 artists directly involved. “Then, if you add in the commercial galleries, who, we hope, will programme carefully around the event, really the whole city will be given over to contemporary art.”

She is talking in terms of beginning studio visits to select artists by August. Originally, Dublin Contemporary was envisaged as taking place this year. With the economic collapse there was some speculation that it might not happen at all. Now, the official backing it has received confirms the political commitment not only to the importance of cultural tourism for Ireland, but to the importance of Ireland’s cultural profile abroad. Thomas is convinced of the event’s potential.

“Really we aim to put Dublin up there with somewhere like Berlin as a centre for contemporary art,” she says. “We see it as an economic driver.”

Dublin Contemporary will take place from Sep 6 to Oct 31 2011