Thursday 2 August, from 18.00
The Milk Market, Cornmarket Row

Performance/Installation
Anastasia Artemeva, Mary Conlon & The Speculative Society, Oisin Byrne, Vaari Claffey & others, Rhona Byrne, Paper Visual Art, Sarah Pierce, Grace Weir
Sculpture/Installation
Basic Space, Gerard Byrne, David Fagan & Aoibheann Greenan, Dean Hughes, Sam Keogh, Barbara Knezevic, El Lissitzky, Jem Noble, Isabel Nolan, Cian O’Ruanaidh, Alice Rekab, Lucy A Sames, Franz Erhard Walther, Walker and Walker
Screenings
John Baldessari, Keren Cytter, Adam Frelin, Jeroen Eisinga, Joan Jonas, Frank O'Hara, David Malijkovic, Deimantas Narkevicius, Sarah Pierce, Elizabeth Price, Emily Richardson, Margaret Salmon, Jan Švankmajer
Curated by Vaari Claffey

For one evening only Gracelands presents Circling the Square: a site-specific programme of new and historical sculpture, performance and screenings by Irish and and Internationally based artists, at The Milk Market Limerick.

Merging the formats of exhibition and festival, a series of artworks will transform the site into a unique, temporary platform where an evening of performances, readings and screenings will unfold. Responding to the canopy which covers The Milk Market, the exhibition event will include a number of fabric based sculptural works, some of which are incorporated into performative works, and many of which have been specially commissioned.

Circling the Square takes the two geometric shapes as starting points. It considers the square as a central meeting point, the site of social exchange and civic or political gathering, as well as a site for the display and exchange of produce, artifacts and effects; and considers circling as a kind of uncertain or preparatory gathering for these occasions. Here, the idiom ‘Squaring the Circle’, referring to the finding of a solution to a complex problem, is reversed, implying a return to complexity and problematics.

By taking over a site designed for another function, Gracelands inserts itself into an existing situation, layering the conventions of both. By re-configuring the furnishings and equipment, the display systems for the market square begin to resemble those of a museum. The inclusion of documentation of historic works and exhibition design from the Van Abbemuseum collection together with performance programme result in a focus on the process of unmaking and remaking which reveals some of the very specific choreography involved in the management of people, space and artworks.

Gracelands:
Director/Curator: Vaari Claffey
Assistant Curator: David Fagan
Technicians: Oliver Alcorn, Robby Collins
Assistants: Claire Breen, Sean Guinan, Darius Murtagh, Kieran Nash, Paul Quast, Matthew Slack, Joan Stack

Thanks:
Ewelina Bubanja, Mary Conlon, Faber Studios, Dara Fahy, Annie Fletcher, Gemma Gore, Francis Halsall, Robin & Juno Hegarty, K & C, Kerlin Gallery, Woodrow Kernohan, Limerick Youth Theatre, Lux, Jacinta Lynch, David O’Brien, Aislinn O’Donnell, Kevin O’Keeffe/Occupy Space, Eamonn O’Mahoney, Ormston House, Bea McMahon, The Milk Market Trust, The Model, Shannon Rowing Club, Eilish Tuite, Aoife Tunney, Van Abbemuseum, Grace Weir & Joe Walker, Wickham Street Studios