Beginning on 4th July and running until 28th July, this pop-up space we called the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland was launched as part of PhotoIreland Festival 2019 10th anniversary festivities.

An incredible 2000m² space awaited visitors, hosting an amazing line-up; and despite its temporary presence, a myriad of events as well as a rich educational programme will take place during this time.

The museum opened with four exhibitions: French-Lebanese photographer and filmmaker Nadim Asfar, presented by Independent Dutch curator Hester Keijser; New Irish Works, with the latest projects by Aisling McCoy, Cian Burke, Dorje de Burgh, George Voronov, Jamin Keogh, Phelim Hoey, Robert Ellis, Róisín White, Sarah Flynn, and Zoe Hamill; co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme, the Parallel Platform featured works by Cihad Caner, Dries Lips, Róisín White, and Jessica Wolfelsperger, curated by Seda Yildiz; the Tokyo International Photography Competition showcased its 2019 finalists.

The educational programme commenced with the symposium ‘Photography and the Museum: Contradictory Histories and Contemporary Perspectives’. Organised in collaboration with the research group Photography/Archives/Ireland, the symposium hosted a day of conversations with Photo-Historian Eléonore Challine, Alison Nordström (Senior Curator of Photographs at George Eastman House, 2004-2013), and Marco De Mutiis, currently digital curator for the Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Visitors enjoyed other events such as guided tours, artists and curatorial talks, and more, like artist led workshops such as ‘Magic Insta Material’, a workshop on Selfies and Portraits for teens, with Berlin based artist Anna Ehrenstein.

Opening a pop-up bookshop for the month, The Library Project brought to the museum selected publications on visual culture and critical thinking, with Art books, photobooks, magazines, and fanzines, from local and international publishers.

The Book & Magazine Fair returned to the PhotoIreland Festival programme, first presented in 2011, bringing the latest photobooks from a large selection of artists and publishers. Part of the PhotoIreland Collection, composed of over 2000 publications, went on display with highlights from its funds, alongside books from the Fotobook Festival Kassel and the Photobook Week Aarhus awards.

The space manifested itself as an established museum, although without a collection per se, presenting, aside from the main exhibitions, photographic works from various public collections instead as its own, highlighting the fact that many outstanding photographic artworks are currently kept in storage in several public holdings in Ireland, such as the Arts Council, OPW, IMMA, and others. After all, these are indeed the property of all Irish citizens.

Adding to these, visitors enjoyed exciting items from private collectors based on the island, underlining their important role in supporting the practice of this discipline today and preserving it for the future.

The museum was conceived as a welcoming space where to enjoy an engagement with the Arts, and where to discover the practice of emerging artists working around Photography. It also invited everyone into an open discussion around the need for a Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland.

Developed by the PhotoIreland, the event was kindly supported by The Office of Public Works, the Arts Council of Ireland, the Dublin City Council Arts Office and Events Section, the Embassy of France in Dublin, the Alliance Française, Hang Tough framing, and Inspirational Arts.

The Parallel Platform exhibition was co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union in collaboration with our European partners, Procur.arte, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, Le Château d’Eau, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Centro Artes José de Guimarães – A Oficina, Format International Photography Festival – Derby Quad, FotoFestiwal – Foundation of Visual Education, Galleri Image, ISSP, KATALOG – Journal of Photography & Video, Landskrona Foto, NGO Mystetski Mandry / Odesa Photo Days, Kaunas Photography Gallery, UGM – Maribor Art Gallery, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Organ Vida, PhotoIreland, and YET Magazine.

PROGRAMME 5-28 JULY 2019

Exhibitions

Events

Process Wing

11am-1pm Saturday 20 July

Practice and Parenthood

Process Wing

2-5pm Saturday-Sunday 20-21 July

Workshop: The Stairlings Collective

Process Wing

6pm Thursday 25 July

Anita Groener and Owen Boss in Conversation

Process Wing

1-2pm Sunday 28 July

OVER Journal Presentation

The Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland
was kindly supported in 2019 by:

Staff

Volunteers

Julia Gelezova – General Manager
Daria Danilchenko – Museum Visitor Services
Claudi Nir –  Project Manager Book Fair
Moritz Neumüller – Curatorial Advisor
Ángel Luis González – CEO & Artistic Director
Frank Brennan – Production Manager
Jamin Keogh – Production Assistant
Seán Daly – Production Assistant

Miguel Asuero García, Youri Alen, Rui Dias, Mark Flanagan, Ben Hutchinson, Margot Kenny, Carolina Hernandez de Toledo, Clare Lyons, Becky O’Sullivan,  Florina Petruneac, Helena Roig, Max Rooney, Eoghan Scally, Sophie Tonge.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland was made possible thanks to the PhotoIreland Patrons, who in 2019 were:

Rose Bennett
Eddie Bosano-Andrews
Noel Bowler
Thomas Bregulla
Frank Brennan
Becks Butler
Ala Buwisir
Sara Carr
Edwin Antonio Cedeno
Ailbe Collins
Samantha Conlon
Ruth Connolly
Brian Cooney
Jane Cummins
Alisha Doody
Natalya Dyomina
Robert Ellis
Fares Fares
Elise Fisher
Sarah Flynn
James Gallagher
Cristina Gonzalez
Richard Gosnold
Céline Harrand
Michael Hayes
Pippa Healy
Sean Hillen
Jonathan Ho
Bryan Hogan
Joseph Holland
Joe Houghton
Ben Hutchinson
Anne James
Jamin Keogh
John Ketch
Jacqui Kiely
Paddy Kiernan

Jake Lange
Seán Laoide-Kemp
Eamonn Lawless
Clare Lymer
Shane Lynam
Roseanne Lynch
Clare Lyons
Emily Mark-FitzGerald
Sheila McAvoy
Stephen McCarthy
Shannon McClatchey
Aisling McCoy
Lisa McGann
Philip McGuinness
Conor McMahon
Gerard McManus
Yvette Monahan
Fintan O Byrne
Hugh O’Conor
Miriam O Connor
Jason O Fionnain
Mandy O’Neill
Genoveva Rahovean
Pauline Rowan
Wojciech Ryzinski
Johnny Savage
Aoife Shanahan
Ronan Shaw
David Thomas Smith
Alexandru Steorobelea
Mat Thurston
Hannah Tiernan
Simon Walsh
Róisín White
Dianne Whyte
Deanna Wojciechowska
Deirdre Wray
Michal Z
Tough Soles

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