Inaugural Commissions

In response to the Never Look Back project, EVA commissioned Michele Horrigan and RGKSKSRG to develop new curatorial works engaging with the organisation's archive.

Michele Horrigan

GET ART, 2023

Michele Horrigan’s curatorial commission GET ART sees elements of the EVA archive infiltrate, disrupt and alter the format of the popular board game Monopoly. Horrigan recalls the 2016 launch of a version of the game dedicated to Limerick City, where players were given the opportunity to roll dice to buy and trade local city properties and develop houses and hotels, aiming to drive their opponents into bankruptcy. In making a comment about the reduction of the city’s image to financial circulation and speculative investment rather than as a cultural entity and a place of lived life, Horrigan’s archival research sees previous EVA artworks re-imagined to replace property and financial transaction. Exhibition memories are recalled in a new form of journey and interaction with the city. Designed by Horrigan’s long time collaborator Wayne Daly, GET ART was available to be played at an event ‘Michele Horrigan in conversation with Peter Carroll’ held on 28 October 2023 as part of the 40th EVA International closing weekend.

Michele Horrigan is an Irish artist and curator. She studied art at the University of Ulster, Belfast and the Städelschule, Frankfurt. Recent exhibitions of her videos and installations have occurred at MACRO, Rome, EVA International, – Ireland’s Biennale of Contemporary Art, Limerick; Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz, and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin. Since 2006 she is founder and director of Askeaton Contemporary Arts, facilitating artists residencies, exhibitions and publication production in rural southwest Ireland with over one hundred realised projects, often with a particular interest in site-specific and socially-engaged practices. Many artworks made in this context have subsequently been presented throughout the world in exhibitions, art biennials and film festivals. In addition, Horrigan has curated exhibitions at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow; Kunstvlaai Biennale for Experimental Art, Amsterdam, and Catalyst Arts, Belfast, amongst others. She is editor and publisher of A.C.A. PUBLIC, a publication venture exploring the many meanings and relationships between art and the public realm. In addition, her writing, essays and articles have been commissioned for, amongst others, Mousse Publishing and Bomb Magazine. After periods of time living in Berlin, Vancouver, Brussels, Pittsburgh, London and Dublin, she currently resides in Limerick.

https://michelehorrigan.com https://askeatonarts.com/

RGKSKSRG (Kate Strain & Rachael Gilbourne) and Farouk Alao

It’s a poor city for art where you can’t start a quarrel, 2025

A curatorial commission with RGKSKSRG and artist-designer Farouk Alao in response to EVA’s initiative Never Look Back.

RGKSKSRG worked with artist-designer Farouk Alao to create a two-part work titled, It’s a poor city for art where you can’t start a quarrel. Conceived of as an extended tablecloth, that is both an archival object in itself and a catalyst for gathering. It features a printed assemblage of snapshots pulled from the EVA digital archive. Selected photographs, video stills, texts and sketches have been collaged by Farouk Alao into a mash-up of imagery along a 10-metre length of fabric. Seating up to 45 people for a supper or a picnic, the tablecloth acts as a prompt for conversation, quarrelling and dreaming. A luncheon was hosted around the tablecloth with Ireland Invites and Culture Ireland at the Shannon Rowing Club, to coincide with the edition of the 40th EVA International.

Seamstress: Abbi Gilbourne; Food, Drinks & Tablescape: Michelle Darmody.

RGKSKSRG is the paired curatorial practice of Rachael Gilbourne and Kate Strain. Based between Dublin and Aughrim, RGKSKSRG commission, present and contextualise contemporary art. Through linking with sites, communities and institutions, RGKSKSRG works to create new contexts for engaged encounters between artists and audiences. These contexts can involve new commissions, solo and group exhibitions, live events, curatorial residencies, talks, interviews, performances, texts, and artworks.

Farouk Alao solves problems and creates Art. Born in Lagos, raised in Dublin, and made in Limerick and London, Alao is currently based between Dublin and London. An emerging artist, designer, model and brand consultant, he finds inspiration mainly from daily interactions with the world. He creates art to better understand the world around him and hopefully help others understand theirs better too. He utilises 2D and 3D design tools and methodologies as well as photography, focusing on humanity, questioning the things we think we know about ourselves.