Lebensreform in Leitrim

Author:

Sarah Browne

Description:

The Lebensreform [life reform] in the title of this book is a tenuous link to a previous century and a collection of ideals and aspirations that still hold purchase. In a striking split of right wing/ left wing political affiliations, the life reform movements arising in Germany in the mid 1800s were controversial from the beginning, and could be considered as culturally modern or anti-modern, progressive or reactionary. They do not present as a legacy an untroubled programme of togetherness or progress, although it seems that nuggets of integrity and intelligence may remain as part of a recurring utopian wish. Invoking a variety of imaginative and problematic documentary strategies, Lebensreform in Leitrim is a kind of surrealist ethnography which addresses the countercultural legacy of migrants to the Northwest of Ireland, and evokes an emotional geography of desired alternatives.

Writers: Wilhelm Bodewigs, Sarah Browne, Emer Coleman, Alice Lyons, Dominic Stevens, Jackie McKenna, Ulrich Kochel, Tina Pommer, Stephen Rennicks and Hans Wieland.

Editor: Sarah Browne

Publisher: cottagelab

ISBN: 978 0 9554976 5 0

Funder/Commissioner: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, European Commission

Designer: Peter Maybury

Available from: Funder/Commissioner: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, European Commission

Designer: Peter Maybury

Available from: Project Arts Centre, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, by mail order directly from the artist [sarahjbrowne(at)yahoo.ie, www.sarahbrowne.info]

Price: €10

Installation images at Leitrim Sculpture Centre