THE PREHISTORY OF THE CRISIS (2) | Project Arts Centre

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THE PREHISTORY OF THE CRISIS (2)

2 JUL - 15 AUG 2009

Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey, Daniel Jewesbury and Sinéad McCann

Curated by Tessa Giblin

Exhibition
Curator's Notes
Biographies
Events

As Ireland experiences recession and unemployment rapidly rises, four artists with a common interest in the complexities of multicultural living come together to examine attitudes to migration before this period of crisis.

The Prehistory of the Crisis (2) will present new work in response to the changing economic and cultural climate, migration and attitudes towards minority groups. The artists will attempt to open a public discussion – abstracting notions of power play and disempowerment to suggest what the future may hold and giving a voice to otherwise muted perspectives.

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Check out photos from our opening night here.

This exhibition will be presented simultaneously at Project Arts Centre in Dublin and Belfast Exposed in Belfast.

Commissioned by Project Arts Centre and presented in conjunction with Belfast Exposed.

A series of talks and discussions to accompany the exhibition will be announced shortly. If you would like to register to receive information on the talks please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Main Image: Susanne Bosch, Romanian Newspaper Seller, Belfast, 2009

Supported by Goethe-Institut Irland

The Prehistory of the Crisis (2)
Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey, Daniel Jewesbury and Sinéad McCann

Project Arts Centre
Opens July 2, Thursday at 6pm, until August 15
Belfast Exposed Photography
Opens July 1, Wednesday at 7pm, until August 7

As the stones shift beneath our feet, where will discontent arise? Has post-boom Ireland already begun to witness an upsurge in nationalism as unemployment rises rapidly in 2009?

Project Arts Centre and Belfast Exposed have invited four artists with a common interest in the complexities of multi-cultural living to make new work for The Prehistory of the Crisis (2). This exhibition brings Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey, Daniel Jewesbury and Sinéad McCann together at a time in history when economic recession underscores every cultural and artistic event taking place in Ireland, North and South. This situation is not just symptomatic of the recession that has hit many globalised economies since 2008. Ireland’s recession brings with it one of the most pronounced changes in fortune, and significantly, Ireland’s first major drop in productivity since the boom days - the swan-song of the Celtic Tiger. For Northern Ireland the credit squeeze, compounded by cuts in public spending, threaten the unfinished work of economic and social regeneration promised by the peace process.

Many migrant workers have left Ireland in recent months and with imminent changes to the eligibility for new work permits coming into effect across both jurisdictions, many more non-EEA citizens will be denied the right to work, forcing them to leave the country. The Prehistory of the Crisis (2) situates itself in a moment when the idea of crisis is twofold: while the term is strongly associated with the impact of economic recession, the cultural crisis which might or might not emerge is bound to be characterised by a relationship to ‘the other’.

The Prehistory of the Crisis (2) will be presented simultaneously in Project Arts Centre in Dublin and Belfast Exposed in Belfast, split over the UK and the Republic of Ireland, yet united by the island of Ireland. The art works in each exhibition are related, but not identical, and we hope to build a web of discourse between these two exhibitions which can help to open a public discussion about migration and attitudes towards individuals or minority groups. The artists don’t propose solutions to these problems, instead they will attempt to cast the discussion in new light – abstracting and performing notions of power play and disempowerment, suggesting what the future may hold. They will give a voice to otherwise muted perspectives, and provide a window into scenarios and activities, allowing spectators to design their own response to the exhibition.

This exhibition was preceded by The Prehistory of the Crisis (I) at Project Arts Centre in 2008, which brought together four European artworks and artists, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin (FR), Jeanne Faust & Jörn Zehe (DE), Aernout Mik (NL), Andrijana Stojkovic (RS). Each of the artworks drew attention to the shifting attitudes towards immigrants (often within the contexts of various guest worker schemes), and the resulting clashes, conflicts or crises that have played a major role in defining ideas of culture within countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and France.

Susanne Bosch (b. 1967, Wesel) is a German artist living in Belfast. Her work involves site-specific, gallery and context-based interventions and installations, publications as well as collaborative projects and is usually based in long-term research questions such as art and its potential for change in contested societies and situations. Susanne is pathway leader (together with Dan Shipsides) of the MA Art in Public, University of Ulster, Belfast. Previously she lived and worked in Berlin and was an assistant professor at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently taking part in Madrid Abierto 2009-10, The Common Good: The Enterprise of Art, PAN Naples (2008), and FIX 07 - 7th International Performance Festival, Belfast (2007). www.susannebosch.de.

Sinéad McCann (b. Dublin, 1982) holds a BA in Fine Art Sculpture from Dublin Institute of Technology and an MFA in Fine Art Sculpture from the National College of Art and Design. Her practice investigates urban living in regenerative urban areas and often presents the voices of marginal groups of people, while responding to and interrupting dominant codes existing in urban, social and institutional contexts. She has exhibited and worked on a diverse range of projects in Ireland, Glasgow, Sweden and Chicago, in both gallery and non-gallery contexts. Her practice is transversal and uses various sculptural and per-formative processes. It crosses many boundaries and contexts including collaborative projects with artists, researchers, writers, communities, musicians, dancers and actors.

Anthony Haughey (b. Armagh, 1963) is an artist and lecturer/researcher at the Dublin Institute of Technology where he is also a PhD supervisor at the Centre for Research in Transcultural Media Practice. He is an editorial advisor for the photographic journal Photographies. His recent work investigates new modes of citizenship. He has exhibited widely internationally, and recent exhibitions include Encounter at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center, Seoul and a public art intervention, How to be a Model Citizen in Dublin Civic Offices. Forthcoming exhibitions include his installation Class of 73 at Les Rencontres d’Arles 09.

Daniel Jewesbury (b. London, 1973) completed a Ph.D at the University of Ulster in 2001, having studied Sculpture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin. Daniel’s work has been shown internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Having used many media in the past, including video, photography and radio, he is now concentrating on the use of 16mm film. His solo exhibition at Void, Derry, in 2007, featured two new works shot in 16mm, No Special Place and 10 Monologues. Daniel is also a widely-published writer, in such titles as Source, Mute, Third Text, Variant (of which he is a co-editor) and The Vacuum, and the Northern Representative for Visual Artists Ireland.

Siún Hanrahan (chair) is a writer and artist, and Head of Research and Postgraduate Development at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

One of the first people to complete a practice-based doctorate in the UK, Hanrahan's practice as a researcher and writer has ranged across a number of fields. In her role as Post-doctoral Fellow and, subsequently, Research Coordinator at the School of Art, Design & Printing at Dublin Institute of Technology she has published papers, and organised international projects, conferences, symposia and public lectures in relation to topics such as: practice-based research in art and design, pedagogy in art and design (including collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to education as well as the potential of e-learning in a practice-based context), and drawing research. More information on Siún Hanrahan here.

Ivana Bacik is the Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin (previously held by Mary Robinson and President Mary McAleese). She is a Senior Lecturer and also a Fellow of Trinity College (elected in 2005), and a practising barrister. She was elected a Senator for the Dublin University constituency of Seanad Eireann in July 2007 and contested the recent elections in 2009. She teaches courses in Criminal law; Criminology and Penology; and Feminist Theory and Law at Trinity. Her research interests include criminal law and criminology, constitutional law, feminist theories and law, human rights and equality issues in law. She is a regular columnist with the Irish Times and contributor to Television and radio debates.

Kieran Allen is a senior lecturer at the School of Sociology in University College Dublin. He has published widely and his previous books include The Celtic Tiger: The Myth of Special Partnership (2000) and The Corporate Takeover of Ireland (2007). He has recently published Ireland’s Economic Crash: A Radical Agenda for Change, June 2009. Allen has contributed to debates on radio and television most recently on Vincent Brown TV3.

Siobhan O’Donoghue is Director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, a national organisation concerned with the rights of migrant workers and their families. She has worked for many years in Irish community sector organisations, ranging from local grass roots organisations to national policy organisations and structures. Siobhán was a member of the National Economic and Social Council from 1999 to 2003 and acted as negotiator for the Community Platform, a gathering of 27 national anti-poverty, equality and social inclusion organisations in national social partnership talks in the late 1990's. Siobhán's experience spans equality issues, anti-racism, community work and campaigning at a local, national and global level. Until recently she was the Irish representative on the board of the European Network Against Racism. She is the current chairperson of the Community Workers' Cooperative, and was a Board member of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism for five years until 2009. Siobhán is the author of Private Homes - A Public Concern, a report detailing the experiences of migrant women employed in the private home, and co-author of Accessing Redress for Exploitation: The experiences of migrant workers.

The Prehistory of the Crisis (2) will present new work in response to the changing economic and cultural climate, migration and attitudes towards minority groups. The artists will attempt to open a public discussion – abstracting notions of power play and disempowerment to suggest what the future may hold and giving a voice to otherwise muted perspectives.

A series of talks will accompany The Prehistory of the Crisis (2). A public talk and discussion on immigration and the economic crisis in Ireland., focusing specifically on the following questions raised by the exhibition:

What effect will the economic downturn have on Irish Culture?
How has our Irish welcome changed as a result of the recession?

4PM- 5.30PM 22nd July 2009

Speakers: Kieran Allen, Ivana Bacik and Siobhan O’Donoghue

In the following discussion, Artists Panel Discssion, chaired by Siún Hanrahan, the artsists, Susanne Bosch, Anthony Haughey, Daniel Jewesbury and Sinéad McCann will discuss in detail the premise for the exhibition.

6PM 12th August 2009

Both events are free. Please note that seats will be issued on a first come first serve basis. For more information on our gallery talks please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .