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CIRCA 113 Editorial
So where's Venice? We carry a 'general' Venice review in this issue, but we're holding off on reviews of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland pavilions until the next issue. This is for two reasons. First, there are activities related to the Northern Ireland pavilion from 6 to 11 October, and they deserve to be covered. Second, with the cooperation of Declan Sheehan of the Context Gallery, Derry, we are conducting a survey that bears directly on the two pavilions. Again, the winter issue will see the fruits of this research. If you would like to participate - and please do - go to recirca.com/poll/venice.
Something else is also awaiting fruition with the winter issue: the redesign of the magazine. We decided to give it just a little more time to be sure we get it right.
This present issue holds some treats. Cork 2005 has brought a great deal of visual-arts activity to the southern capital, much more than this magazine could hope to cover. We do have reviews of Superbia 2 and the Cobh and Cork Sticker Book project. But Cork 2005 is also about leaving a legacy in the city, and Cork Caucus has been central to this effort. Lucy Cotter has written here about the successes and difficulties of the project.
As Cotter's article suggests, art-making appears to have entered a new, 'relational' phase, where the form of interpersonal interaction is a crucial component, and sometimes the only component, of the artwork. Such an aesthetic can also contextualise the socially engaged practice of Jochen Gerz in his National Memory Grove in Ballymun, discussed here by Tim Stott. It also informs the project by Sarah Browne in these pages.
If the relational is 'post' postmodern, Gerard Byrne's work reaches back, keeping us half-rooted in the modern. He plays with events and devices from the history of modernism in layered artworks which, as Maeve Connolly reports here, often appear to stage the unrepresentable. If Byrne is playing with the accessibility of meaning, Roger Buergel juggles not only meaning, but meaning-producers: he is the curator for the next Documenta, the five-yearly art megathon in Kassel. Valerie Connor met with him during a visit to Ireland, and here she analyses his practice.
Between Caucus, Gerz, Byrne and Buergel, there is a lot of room for conceptualising a very wide range of artistic production. Such production, very much of it still coming under the 'alternative' label, has to start somewhere. In his article, Alan Phelan looks at the scarcity of opportunities for giving such output an outing in the available spaces in Dublin. But he also glimpses glimmers of hope.
Those are just the feature articles. There's a lot more here, from ads - often a great source of images and information - to news to reviews. Enjoy the magazine.
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