At the Arsenale, the Irish Pavilion project explores the power dynamics that arise around the collective construction of buildings through the tradition of “meitheal,” groups of workers who come together to help one another.
An immersive sculpture that includes multi-channel video art and an operatic soundtrack: Romantic Ireland explores the complex power games that take place in meitheal, a form of cooperative work that is traditionally Irish. The idea for the exhibition started with the current housing crisis in Ireland, and developed via a video installation set in areas of Ireland where traditional building techniques include raw earth houses – itself common in other areas of the world, as well. Seven performers, including artist Eimear Walshe, are guided by choreographer Mufutau Yusuf to give life to archetypical characters whose conversation traces the heritage of the late nineteenth-century Irish land dispute, highlighting the complicated relationship between estate, built environment, and sexual conservatism.
The video was filmed using four smartphones which the performers passed one another, blurring the lines between director, actor, and cameraman. The Irish Pavilion is an open construction site of possibilities, an arena for Irish intergenerational and inter-class antagonism, and a space for care that social death (represented by eviction) turned to cold ruins. The art forces different historical moments to come together and highlights power play, affection modes, forms of labour, conflict, pleasure.
