39th EVA International (Phase 3)
Phase 3 of the 39th EVA International was the final of a three-phase exhibition programme that unfolded across venues in Limerick city and online, from 24 September – 14 November 2021. It featured 19 presentations by Irish and international artists and collaborating curators across exhibition venues Limerick City Gallery of Art, Park Point, Sailor’s Home and spacecraft, and online.
The 39th EVA International took its reference from the “Golden Vein,” a 19th-century descriptor for the agricultural bounty of the Limerick region, and across all phases of the programme it sought to question ideas of land and its contested values in the context of Ireland today. Through the work of the participating artists, these questions extended to broader considerations of how we relate to land in terms of ideology, identity, and resource.
The Guest Programme titled Little did they know, curated by Merve Elveren, featured artists Benji Boyadgian, Oisín Byrne with Adam Gibbons, Jasmina Cibic, Barış Doğrusöz, Minna Henriksson, Melanie Jackson & Esther Leslie, Zeyno Pekünlü, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, Krista Belle Stewart, Rayna Teneva & Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, and Driant Zeneli, and presentations We realised the power of it, an installation of archive material from the Derry Film and Video Workshop – led by Sara Greavu in collaboration with artist Ciara Phillips; and Sexuality of a Nation: Lionel Soukaz and Liberation Politics led by Paul Clinton. The Little did they know online platform available to view here, brought together content and resources that expanded upon individual works and research-based projects represented in the exhibition.
Adjacent to the Little did they know programme was a series of EVA International Partnership Projects, developed in collaboration with national and international organisations. The programme included presentations in partnership with artists Orla Barry (in collaboration with Mu.ZEE); Em’kal Eyongakpa (commissioned through EVA International and IMMA’s Encounters partnership, supported by Mondriaan Fund); Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan (commissioned by EVA International, supported by the Magic Carpets programme, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union); and Inês Neto dos Santos (supported in collaboration with the Magic Carpets Creative Europe Programme, curated by Niamh Brown, Creative Producer, EVA International). Newly commissioned works by Áine McBride and Emily McFarland were presented across the exhibition programme, developed as part of EVA Internationals’s Platform Commissions initiative.