Exhibitions

Here, the Considered Line
September 2024
Curated by Lenka Sýkorová

An international group exhibition focussed on contemporary drawing extends the collaboration between artist-run spaces Altán Klamovka, Prague and Interface, Connemara.

Being an intimate gesture, drawing is perceived by many artists as the most direct medium for processing or articulating ideas. Combining the mind, eye and hand, the drawn line is a strong visual gesture of contemporary intermedia artists, whether on paper or guided by matter in space.

The thinking hand[1] is a gift for visual artists, where slowing down can lead to a state of deep concentration and connection to the current moment. One of the freedoms of art is that it offers an opportunity to bear witness to experiences through alternative lens. Together with this comes a vulnerability in which the artistic process can be informed by emotional intention. Slowing down, staying in the present moment can also be liberating. Sharpening the senses to fully concentrate on the moment also provides identification with place and a full appreciation of the present without planning for the future.

The exhibition Here, the Considered Line combines work by artists from the Altán Klamovka gallery platform in Prague and artists from Interface. It opens a dialogue between artists from Central Eastern Europe and the West of Ireland taking drawing as a starting point, which is demonstrated as a tender but powerfully expressive medium. Simultaneously, the exhibition makes room for conversations bout space and place, for immersion in nature and an exploration of the local history and legacy of place.

[1] Juhani Pallasmaa: The Thinking Hand, (2009).

Photos: Aoife Herriott & Alannah Robins

When We Cease to Understand the World
July 2024
Curated by Marysia Więckiewicz-Carroll

When We Cease to Understand the World is a group exhibition that takes its cue from the unique setting of Interface Inagh – a studio and residency programme situated in the Inagh Valley, in the heart of Connemara. The site was originally designed to be the biggest and most advanced salmon hatchery in the world, which supplied offshore salmon farmers with smolt via helicopter. The company’s ultimate failure – the factory was built too high above the adjacent lake – represents both the scale of human ambition and its disregard for natural surroundings.

The exhibition brings together the work of seven artists who explore the disconnection between humankind and nature, but also look at the potential of renewal. Through film, painting, sculpture and installation, they invite us to look closely, to look back to old practices, to learn a place and sit within its geology and deep time, and finally to connect with each other and the natural world.

Photos: Aoife Herriott

All the Dark Places
July 2023
Curated by Alannah Robins

Eliška Kováčiková | Hardy Langer | Margaret O Brien | Mary Donnelly | Noel Arrigan

All the Dark Places is a site-specific exhibition curated by Alannah Robins. In the unique environs at Interface, a visual artists’ workspace in the Inagh Valley, Connemara, this exhibition brings together the work of five artists exploring the unseen pulse in the landscape. The five artists approach the subject of landscape through paint, kinetics, multi-media sculpture and installation. Their engagements range from the spiritual and metaphysical to investigating more sinister, corporate exploitation of nature.

Photos: Aoife Herriott