ROMANTIC IRELAND

ROMANTIC IRELAND was an exhibition by artist Eimear Walshe, curated by Sara Greavu and Project Arts Centre for the Irish Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Through a practice that spans video, sculpture, publishing, sound, and performance, Eimear Walshe’s work traces the legacies of late 19th century land contestation in Ireland and its relation to private property, sexual conservatism, and the built environment. 

ROMANTIC IRELAND comprised a multi-channel video installation and an operatic soundtrack housed in an immersive sculpture. Set on the site of an unfinished earth build, the video staged soapy, dramatic encounters between character archetypes from the 19th–21st centuries. These figures occupied an abstracted ruin, a site under simultaneous construction and demolition. The pavilion soundtrack was a five-voice opera describing the scene of an eviction, composed by Amanda Feery with a libretto by Walshe. 

The graphic identity was inspired by historic reference points from the Irish Proclamation to Irish country posters of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the latex masks worn by the figures in the work itself. A pocket-sized photobook was produced to accompany the exhibition; its size and proportions informed by the phones that the video was filmed on. A 2-colour, 8 page fold-out exhibition guide was also produced, alongside a comprehensive website that both introduced and archived the work.

Commissioned by Culture Ireland in partnership with The Arts Council Ireland | An Chomhairle Ealaíon. With principal sponsorship from Dublin City Council for Ireland at Venice 2024.