Circa 114: Article

What is my nation. Who talks of my nation?

Aisling O'Beirn`Stories for Venetians and tourists, 2005, installation shot, café, Giudecca, Venice courtesy the artist

This started with an error. There was in fact no pavillion representing Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale 2005. ¹ To avoid further confusion, let's revise events: there was a separate and distinct Northern Ireland presentation of artists at the Biennale, for the first time ever. Previously, the representation at Venice from the island of Ireland was selected and presented as a single Irish pavilion. My understanding is that there was a certain dissatisfaction with this state of affairs as there was a continuing sense that the commissioners for Ireland at the Biennale would always be selected from those active in the Republic of Ireland. And that there was also an attendant sense that artistic practice from Northern Ireland would suffer - in terms of international exposure - as a result. So a separate presentation of artists based in Northern Ireland was established at Venice - but distinctly not intended as a 'national pavilion'.² Here is, however, some indicative evidence of what has actually happened, regardless of stated intentions - and this is manifest from personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and responses to the What is my nation? poll. This year for the first time, audiences at the Venice Biennale have returned making one of the following statements: "The Northern Irish artists/ pavilion/ exhibition was better that the Republic," or "The Republic's artists/ pavilion/ exhibition was better than those of Northern Ireland."

It is obvious that these new structures of the selection, the presentation and the reception of the artworks from this island at Venice have now embodied elements involving all participants in a process of 'defining territories'.³ It is the case that such distinction represents a whole new state of affairs: there exists no reasonable argument that can be made against that fact. It is a major paradigm shift in the national and international presentation and reception of artists from this island. And it is the case that there was massively insufficient debate, critique, or discussion prior to this state of affairs changing on the ground: thus only leaving an opportunity for debate lying in the wake of the event, rather that in advance; and thus denying any potential for open contributions to finding an adequate form of solution to the problems and concerns highlighted in the opening paragraph above.

If the questions asked are in error, then the answers will be in error. Here is a question in error, which this whole new state of affairs puts to artists from this island: "Should your practice be represented in a separate and distinct Northern Ireland presentation of artists at the Venice Biennale or in the Irish pavilion at the Venice Biennale?"
Here is a question not in error: "How do we, artists and curators, establish an adequate response to a sense that the commissioners for Ireland at the Biennale always select from those active in the Republic of Ireland and the attendant sense that artistic practice from Northern Ireland suffers - in terms of international exposure - as a result?"

The poll, Research towards 'What is my nation?' : Part one, is a conscious elaboration of questions in error and not in error: of questions which inevitably lead to answers in error; of answers in error each with the other; in short, an elaboration of complexities. It is a conscious riposte to any solutions that are elaborated by a simple rather than a complex nature; to any solutions elaborated by a simple rather than a complex sense of identification with a community, or a national or a political identity. There is no reasonable dispute over the fact that identification with a community, or a national or a political identity, has been and continues to be a hugely complex, multiple and often dangerous concern in the island of Ireland. A statement or event that states or aims at a disregard for these concerns does not in effect constitute an act that disregards these concerns. The concerns haven't gone away. Peter Gay, writing of his complexities regarding identification as a German Jew, writes that "If these ruminations, these sudden shifts in mood, sound inconsistent, they were..." ⁴

This is a realm of inconsistency, of ruminations and shifts in mood, of ambiguity. ⁵

There was a concern that artists based in Northern Ireland were missing a platform at Venice. But to attempt to remedy this by presenting artists from Northern Ireland as simply 'separate' and 'apart' from artists from the Republic of Ireland, and to not expect this act to be obliged to recognize complexities regarding identification, is funnily enough simply another 'Irish solu tion to an Irish problem'.

The title is from Shakespeare, HENRY V ACT III SCENE I (see poll overleaf)

1 In my defence, I must point out that this error I made in drawing up my poll and using the word 'pavilion' within it, is an error also made even in the foreword of the Northern Ireland Venice exhibition catalogue: "... 14 of Northern Ireland's finest contemporary artists to create the first pavilion in Venice...": The Nature of things - artists from Northern Ireland, 2005 (p.9)
2 See again footnote 1. Also note that many 'new' national pavilions have only been established after nonofficial, nonnational representation at Venice: eg Rachael Thomas curating Cerith Wynn Evans as an intervention in the British pavilion. 2001, an act ultimately leading towards the development of the first separate Welsh pavilion.
3 See points raised by Shane Cullen at a discussion in Temple Bar between the Venice Biennale Commissioners from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 24 February, 2005, printed in Printed project: "... [the situation that] exists at the moment seems to be defining territories"; from 'One closer to the other', Printed project, issue 05, May 2005, p.84.
4 Peter Gay, My German question, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1998, p.13
5 Shane Cullen, ibid: "... I actually think I preferred the situation where an artist from this part of Ireland and Northern Ireland worked together in a kind of ambiguous presentation without anything being so explicitly laid down."

Declan Sheehan is Director of Context Galleries, Derry

Reprinted from Circa 114, Winter 2005, pp. 24 - 25