Moving Dublin
Click the image to view the full gallery.
| Artist Name(s) | Anne Cleary & Denis Connolly |
| Artwork title | Moving Dublin |
| Context/Background | This project was commissioned under South Dublin County Council's In Context 3 public art programme, of which the principle component was to create time for the artists to engage with the context. This allowed us to explore South Dublin deeply, while placing it in its wider context of the greater Dublin area. The immediate geographical context therefore is South Dublin County and its surrounding areas, and the project is multi-sited; many of the sites hold emotional significance for the people that we interviewed, and others were of personal significance to ourselves. The work can also be read in the context of global questions on urban expansion, and in the historic context of Dublin's urban development linked to many factors, such as our colonial history, independence, rural versus urban lifestyle etc. |
| Description | A filmic essay about contemporary Dublin, and a collection of photographs, essays and video works produced in a hard cover volume by Gandon Editions in April 2009. We spent a lot of time meeting and talking to people all over Dublin about their personal experiences of moving through the city, and once again the context is very wide. We chose not to limit Moving Dublin to particular social strata, but included people from very varied social and economic backgrounds, and of all ages; our intention being to paint a profound portrait of life in contemporary Dublin. This project took place in a very particular economic context, towards the end of Ireland's great boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when huge amounts of construction had liberated finance for culture through the Per Cent for Arts Scheme. The funding available for Moving Dublin covered 2 years of work, the production of an hour long high definition documentary, several shorter video installations, several participative and educational projects in the community, a hard cover publication, and a comprehensive series of photographs. Unfortunately given the economic downturn it is likely that valuable public art initiatives such as In Context 3 will see their funding diminish or disappear. Moving Dublin is at once a filmic essay about contemporary Dublin, and a collection of photographs, essays and video works produced in a hard cover volume by Gandon Editions in April 2009. The artists spent two years meeting, talking and filming with Dubliners from many social backgrounds; from school children and teachers, to writers and architects finding out about their daily journeys through a city suffocated by modern urban problems. Moving Dublin explores the everyday world of movement in Dublin and its vast sprawling suburbs spreading out west from the coastal city. It looks at how far the contemporary world of the Dublin commuter has strayed from the civic realm it constituted when Joyce wrote the Wandering Rocks chapter of Ulysses. In the artists words: "For two years we moved around Dublin in every way possible: by car, taxi, bus, train, tram, bicycle and on foot. We met scores of Dubliners, and recorded dozens of personal accounts of moving through the city. We amassed a treasure trove of documents - video, photographs, interviews, sounds, stories. The result is Moving Dublin; a road movie, a picture book, and many other things. The project also resulted in a collection of shorter video installations, including Luas Carol, The Life of Saint Mary, and The Observer Effect, all of which examine journeys of different scales through Dublin City." Throughout the project Cleary and Connolly worked closely with local Arts Officers, schools and other community groups and the resulting works demonstrate a high level of community participation, reflecting Cleary and Connolly's strategy of "observer-participation" as a means of producing work with meaning. An important element of Moving Dublin is Cleary and Connolly's series of moving photographs, some of which appear in the book. Numbering several thousand, these photographs were all taken while travelling through the city using various means of transport. Conceived to examine the aesthetic aspects of urban mobility, these momentary shots taken in passing provide a powerful commentary on social and urban practices today. |
| Mediation | Publication with DVD and foreword by Frank McDonald. |
| Biographies | Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly both studied architecture in Dublin in the 1980s, before moving to Paris in 1990. After a lengthy collaboration with the French urban theorist Bernard Huet in the early 1990s, they developed a long-lasting interest in the filmed city. From 1999 to 2005 they produced a large-scale multimedia project, The Boulevard, inspired by the urban environment in which they live. Their work has been exhibited worldwide and has received several international awards. In 2006 they created a series of interactive video works for Limerick City Gallery of Art. This project evolved into Pourquoi pas Toi?, a major solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2008. They were awarded a two year residency by South Dublin County in December 2006, through which Moving Dublin was produced. |
| Commission Type | Local Authority |
| Commissioner Name | South Dublin County Council |
| Commissioning process | Open Submission |
| Project commission dates | January 12, 2006 - January 12, 2008 |
| Partners | The Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government and the National Roads Authority The Arts Council of Ireland |
| Artform | Visual Arts |
| Art Practice | Arts Participation |
| Funded By | South Dublin County Council |
| Percent for art | Yes |
| Budget Range | 150000 - 250000 euro |
| Project commission start date | 12/01/2006 |
| Project commission end date | 12/01/2008 |
| County | Dublin |
| Google Map Insert | View this projects location |
| Website | www.connolly-cleary.com/Dublin/moving_dublin.html |
| Content contributor(s) | Anne Cleary |
| Relationship to project | Co-author with Denis Connolly |
| Public engagement | Saint Mary's Primary school, Tallaght Village. |
| Associated professionals / Specialists involved | Sound |
