Ireland’s presentation at the Venice Biennale of Architecture is In Search of Hy-Brasil, which references a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean.
Above: Minister Catherine Martin with the architects curating Ireland’s entry at the Venice Biennale.
Ireland’s presentation at the Venice Biennale of Architecture is In Search of Hy-Brasil, which references a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean. The name signals a sense of adventure as well as a regard for sites and communities off the west coast of Ireland.
Occupying a generous space deep within the Arsenale, Venice’s former naval workshop, the project gathers a family of evocative new objects portraying aspects of life on islands – in particular, Skellig Michael, Inishmaan and Clare Island.
The exhibition is curated by a team of five – Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen and Joseph Mackey – architects who also teach in Irish schools of architecture. The installation is a rich assembly of 2D and 3D objects analysing and honouring island culture. They open up discussions about the extent and potential of Ireland as a maritime state, with its seabed stretching as far as Rockall.
The middle of the Venice installation is allocated to a Skellig-like outcrop made from Galway black wool. It shares the floor with three large models of the key islands, made in Kilkenny stone; two long benches of sacks fabricated from rope ‘harvested’ from the sea; and a lone object labelled ‘The Crucible’, in which visitors can touch sea coral. A long tapestry showing Ireland in its vast marine zone hangs on the wall alongside a screen showing a film of daily life on Inishmaan. There is also a graphite drawing of Pangaea – the world’s consolidated mass before continental drift – in which, according to curator Peter Carroll, ‘Ireland kisses Africa’. Carroll continues that this year’s team ‘wants to shape policy on the future role of islands’.
In Search of Hy-Brasil is showing at Venice until 26 November and will be exhibited in Ireland next year. Architecture could thus prompt a more considered response to our natural resources and Irish governmental strategy.
Raymund Ryan
