In Search of Hy-Brasil Ireland Tour
In July 2022 the Hy-Brasil team initiated their project with a series of 11 briefing sessions, gathering over forty interested individuals from around Ireland, our offshore islands and elsewhere to discuss the theme of ‘Islands’ under several selected headings. The resulting conversations were both deeply informative and illuminating, expanding our collective horizon on the concept of islandness. Intersecting accounts of cutting edge scientific research and tacit knowledge acquired through lived experience, the natural world and human enterprise, deep time and the quotidian rhythms and rituals of island life convinced us we all have much to learn from these communities when attempting to recalibrate our relationship with the natural world to address the pressing challenges of climate change, renewable energy, ethical food production and loss of biodiversity.
The return of In Search of Hy-Brasil to Ireland after a period of six months in Venice provides a unique platform to engage the general public, both young and old, in a broad wide ranging programme of events to further elaborate the core message that lies at the heart of the project. Just as the Irish Pavilion embraces circadian rhythms induced by daylight and darkness, the story of Hy-Brasil unfolds across the year in the form of three events aligned with cycle of the four seasons - Na Ceithre Shéasúr.
IMBOLC Spring an t-earrach, BEALTAINE Summer an samhradh, LUGHNASA Autumn am foghar.
Making-waves - Highwave Research Project - Frederic Dias - Inis Meáin 2022
IMBOLC
The preview of Island Conversations will be held in Inis Meáin on 22nd March.
Opening Community Event hosted by Mairead Mairéad Ní Fhatharta, Principal of Coláiste Naomh Eoin Secondary Schoool
Hanging of 9m long tapestry for two weeks duration
Island Conversations Preview is a celebration of Inis Meáin and our Island communities’ collective resourcefulness and ingenuity. It identifies and discusses their unique contribution to cultural memory and production, scientific research, landscape rehabilitation and improved biodiversity on the path to the achievement of a carbon-free society. Event to be documented by Red Pepper productions.
Film Screening: A day in the life of Inis Meáin
BEALTAINE
The summer festival Island Narratives will be held in Solstice, Navan Co. Meath from 22nd June to the 31st August 2024. Solstice has made the whole building available to Hy-Brasil for the purpose of disseminating the core message that lies at the heart of the project.
Installation Hy-Brasil: The installation of In Search of Hy-Brasil in the 3no. main galleries at Solstice will be open to the general public throughout the summer. A supporting programme of cultural events Island Narratives will be organised around the content of the installation. The programme will take the form of supporting exhibitions, film screenings, related talks and symposia.
Opening: A Keynote talk from Tara Shine. Tara Shine is an Irish environmental scientist, policy advisor and science communicator. Her work considers climate change negotiations and capacity building. She is a former member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Group of Experts.
Film Screenings: Film screenings will take place in the building’s main theatre and selectively on the external on the gable wall of the building. To include:
- Red Pepper Productions Documentary film documenting the process of making Hy-Brasil, supported by Arts Council and TG4
- ‘Wanderlands - Time, Earth, Story’ - Recordings from Venice - a joint initiative between Ireland, Scotland and Australia. Unspooling the themes of place, resources, and temporality.
- ‘Tory Island: The Tribe of Gods’ - Loic Jourdain Lugh Films. Patsy Dan Rodgers is the last King of Ireland, who lives on Tory Island, Ireland's most remote inhabited island. A small rock in the Atlantic with a hundred and a fifty strong Irish speaking community. Diagnosed with cancer, the King leads the islanders' constant efforts to secure their rights and unique way of living.
- ‘A Turning Tide in the Life of Man’ - This film follows John O'Brien, a small fisherman from the island of Inis Bó Finne who embarked on a European campaign to try and regain his ancestral right to fish the seas around Donegal.
Linguistic Contours: Drawing on the installation, this symposium explores the complex relationship and interdependency between language and the environment. The Meath Gaeltacht, which has its roots in the West of Ireland, consists of two adjacent villages of Ráth Chairn and Baile Ghib, (linguistic islands) which are located close to Navan town in County Meath. The local Irish speaking community is invited to participle in an exploration of how the Irish Language structures our idea of landscape and the environment.
Mind the Earth: Drawing on the installation, it is proposed to bring other likeminded participants from the Biennale to exhibit an element of their work around the theme of Earth at Solstice. A series of related talks and public learning and engagement workshops will explore issues of soil, landscape re-habilitation, regenerative farming and improving biodiversity.
2024 Schools Project: Drawing on the installation, which excerpts from the 1937 Schools’ Folklore Project local school children and children from the islands will be invited to review the 1937 records and asked to create their own archive of local folklore and accounts of their natural environment. To be exhibited in the main building and projected onto the building’s façade.
LUGHNASA
The autumn festival Island Celebrations will be held at the Printworks Galway during the last week of September and the first week in October as part of Architecture at the Edge. Island Celebrations proposes to take all of the work created over the course of the previous year and represents it in a new combined installation incorporating the: Installation of Hy-Brasil, records of the Briefing Sessions, Red Pepper productions film Hy-Brasil, Wanderlaust - Time, Earth, Story (Ireland, Scotland, Australia), Contributions from the Venice Biennale, Outputs from Island Conversations and Island Narratives: Linguistic Contours, Mind the Earth, 2024 Schools Project.
Evening: Imagining Hy-Brasil drawn from the content of the installation an evening presentation and discussion with the Curators exploring the future of this island.
Press kit