Things To Do: Slow down, go to Gomorrah, contemplate a vanishing Dublin, move to Francis Street

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Tivoli space on Francis Street

This morning, Staycity Group launched an open call to the city’s cultural and creative community for a three-year occupancy of the ground floor exhibition and performance space in the aparthotel company’s Francis Street branch.

Built on the site of the former Tivoli Theatre, the vacant space is set to be turned into a “white boxed” 353sqm venue that will be offered to not-for-profit groups, collectives, arts organisations and community-focused practitioners at “heavily subsidised” rental rates, which will be agreed with the selected occupants, according to a Staycity press release issued today.

It is capable of accommodating up to 200 visitors and will operate between 8am and 10pm seven days a week, the release says.

If you’re one of the groups eligible to apply, they are taking submissions here. The deadline for applications is 17 May, and there will be a two-stage selection process, assessed by an internal and independent external panel, which is expected to conclude by the end of June.

Do You Come From Gomorrah?

Tomorrow evening in the Abbey Theatre, playwright Frank McGuinness’ new play Do You Come From Gomorrah? is getting its world premiere.

Performed by Ryan Donaldson, the story is about a young man who relives his time spent in captivity, following the breakdown of his family. Known as Gomorrah, the reformatory in which he is confined is supposed to stand for “cleanliness, order and industrious living”, and is described as a “mirror to the strangeness and contradictions of 1970s Ulster".

Directed by Sarah Baxter, Do You Come From Gomorrah will be previewing on the Peacock Stage from tomorrow (Friday, 10 April) until Wednesday, 15 April, after which it will run until 16 May.

For more information, and to book your tickets, visit the Abbey Theatre event page here.

Slow Art Day at IMMA

On Saturday, 11 April, it is International Slow Art Day, a day that is entirely devoted to encouraging you to slow down, take time and experience art in a new way.

Throughout the day, the Irish Museum of Modern Art will be running a series of events beginning with a drawing workshop at 11pm. Hosted by artist Renata Pękowska in the Matheson Creativity Hub, the guided session invites participants to tune into their sensesm and express moments of focus through simple, mindful drawing techniques.

Afterwards, at 12.30pm, participants can step into IMMA’s Art as Agency exhibition – the museum’s major three-year display of its Permanent Collection – as curator Bairbre-Ann Harkin will be leading a “slow art tour”, engaging with the works one piece at a time, sharing their ideas, observing unexpected ideas and telling their respective stories.

The events are free. For more information, visit the IMMA website here.

Words in Other Places

This weekend, a new cross-border literary festival, Words in Other Places will be launching in Belfast and Dublin.

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, the festival will be showcasing a range of figures from the contemporary literary scene, north and south, through different talks in both Belfast’s Seamus Heaney Centre and Dublin’s Irish Writers Centre.

Day one of the festival (11 April) will be taking place in Belfast, with writers including Rafael Mendes, Rob Doyle and Louise Nealon slated to appear. Day two (Sunday, 12 April) comes down to Dublin, and will begin at 12pm with an hour-long panel discussion featuring contemporary writers from the north: Jan Carson, Leontia Flynn, and Wendy Erskine.

Later, at 4pm, there will be a panel discussion featuring international writers speaking on the subject of literature in translation and “words beyond borders”. Hosted by poet Adam Wyeth, this talk will feature Hugo Hamilton, Suad Aldarra, and Vicrotia Melkovska

Tickets are free and going quickly. So head on over to the festival’s page here to secure a seat before it’s too late.

Vanishing Dublin

Next Thursday, 16 April, the Gerard Byrne Gallery on Trinity Street is hosting a panel discussion as part of its exhibition Before I Go: Vanishing Dublin.

Running until 10 May, Before I Go brings together over 50 characteristically Dublin cityscapes by artist Gerard Byrne. And to broaden the conversation around Byrne’s oil and charcoal works, a few historians and heritage voices will be dropping into the gallery on Thursday at 6.30pm to ask “what does a city lose when it forgets what it looked like?”

Hosted by historian, author and podcaster Donal Fallon, the talk will feature Donough Cahill of the Irish Georgian Society, Daryl Hendley Rooney of The Little Museum of Dublin, and art historian and Dublin Decoded Tours chief guide Arran Henderson.

Admission is free, but seating is limited. To reserve a space, visit the event page here.

EX/IT: Lift

Last Thursday, the Douglas Hyde Gallery launched EX/IT: Lift, the first solo exhibition in Ireland by British-Iranian interdisciplinary artist Abbas Zahedi.

Zahedi’s work centres on reciprocity, renewal, social connection and care and brings scientific, philosophical and poetic insights to bear on fixed narratives around art, history and institutional life.

With EX/IT: Lift, which is showing in Gallery 1 until 14 June, Zahedi’s newly commissioned work interrogates bureaucratic systems: administrative, religious, institutional, and militaristic. Through a series of sound sculptures – some of which sound alarms, while others reflect endless rhythms of manual labour or ritual practice – the artist explores the capacity of the gallery space to challenge dominant systems through dialogue and collective action.

As part of the gallery’s response series The Artist’s Eye, Zahedi invited artist Bushra Mustafa Dunne to write and record a new poem, which is being played in a long-range acoustic device that is currently installed in the adjoining Gallery 2.

For more information, visit the Douglas Hyde Gallery website here.

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SIGNS present: 

Elikya (Congolese 9-piece rumba/soukous) 
David DeBarra (experimental folk 3-piece) 
Farah Elle (alternative singer-songwriter) 
Cormorant Tree Oh (experimental folk, drone, psych)
+ DJs Pablo Santo & more 

May 03 at The Sugar Club | 20:00—03:00

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Irish Song for Lebanon Fundraiser

On 16 April, singer, poet and arts facilitator Amano De Londra Miura will be hosting an online fundraiser for Lebanese Food Bank.

In this bilingual workshop, Amano will guide participants in learning one suantraí/lullaby, with Irish leaners and singers of all levels welcome.

The online session will kick off at 5.30pm. To book a space and for more information, visit the event page here.

Off The Scéal: Multilingual Open Mic Night

Over in the Winding Stair on 16 April, Off The Scéal is returning for its first multilingual open-mic night of the year.

Celebrating stories, poems, comedy, music and spoken word in any language, the session is welcome to all, whether you’re sharing something new or just coming along to listen.

Hosted in partnership with Poetry Ireland, the event starts at 6.30pm and will feature special guest Kiruu. Admission is free. For more information, visit the event page here.