Four days have passed since the end of the November edition of the Trash Culture Revue DIY Arts Festival and I’m only coming round to writing about it, accounting for it; the events, the performers, the members of our skills exchange. It’s been a heavy few days; weary, tiring, aching, sore, so sore, a reminder of my age and all that goes into making sure the festival happens, takes place, runs smoothly, the way it should. That people are happy, in tune and alive to what our skills exchange is up to in the shadow of mainstream culture.
I always feel we’re so hidden scurrying as we do beneath the behemoth they call ‘Irish Culture’, ‘Brand Ireland’, ‘Cultural Ireland’- that medicine we’re forced to digest everyday of the week until we’re addicted to it, can’t live without it. Sick. It makes me sick.
Where was I? Oh yes, our DIY Arts Festival – made for nothing, built on the shoulders of our co -operative, our members. Continue reading »
It began with Arttrail. Their visual arts festival runs for two weeks in November so it only made sense that we got involved and worked together. This year they got their hands on the ground floor of The Elysian Tower – otherwise known as the ‘Idle Tower’ – a hubristic reminder of that vanity project called Celtic Tiger Ireland. The block is mostly empty, unfinished, which made it a fantastic collective space for an exhibition of Cork based artists studios and we were delighted to be involved with both Susan Leen and Leo Boyd exhibiting their work there.
