e v+ a 2006 — give(a)way...

curator: Katerina Gregos (Greece)

ISBN 978 0946846 924     256 pages (paperback)   24x17cm   400 illus   artist index

• features 70 Irish and international artists • colour illus, artist’s statement and short biog for each artist • curator’s essay by Katerina Gregos – “Give(a)way: on generosity, giving, sharing and social exchange” • afterword by Paul M O’Reilly – “To discern the other”

EXTRACT

"ev+a 2006 aims to explore ideas of generosity, sharing, communication, social interaction and exchange. The exhibition is motivated by a desire to create situations of connection within the city of Limerick, and has attempted to activate and involve local arts organisations, individuals and community groups. In that sense, it is an exhibition for the city and maybe about the city, although not exclusively so. In contrast to some large international exhibitions which culturally ‘colonise’ a particular location for a brief period of time and impose a forced sense of internationalism, e v+ a 2006 focuses on the specificity of the local context, as seen by the Irish and international artists, within the proposed conceptual framework. It also attempts, in line with the notion of generosity, to give something back to the city of Limerick. The exhibition investigates and proposes different, alternative forms of generosity, and challenges the idea of generosity as one tied to the logic of an exchange economy. Instead, e v+ a 2006 is based on an expanded idea of generosity – on ideas of sharing, giving, creating situations of local interaction and dialogue, and imagining possibilities for a better future.
         Generosity often tends to be seen as something that should translate into a calculable commodity, its meaning bound solely to ideas of giving to the needy in the material sense. But it can mean many other things: generosity is also about sharing in pleasure, giving pleasure; it is about contribution and engagement; it can simply be about giving time. Being able to offer hope – or creating situations where hope is a possibility – can also be seen as a kind of generosity, as long as that hope is not a false one. On the other hand, even sharing one’s trauma in the light of personal plight or catastrophe without bitterness or vengefulness can also be seen as a form of generosity. The exhibition will thus not aim to provide a strict definition of generosity, but will be looking at a plurality of approaches towards the term. In her book Corporeal Generosity, Rosalyn Diprose argues that ‘generosity precedes and also establishes communal relations as it constitutes the self as affecting and being affected by others’. She also defends the idea of generosity as being related to social justice as well as tolerance of difference, ideas that I would support.
         Above all, however, true generosity stems from openness to others. All these are ideas which lie at the core of e v+ a 2006, which, moreover, aims to explore the act of giving as an experiment that might alleviate alienation from the community or the city. Over seventy international and Irish artists are taking part in this year’s exhibition, most of who have made new work and developed new projects especially for the show. These artists have not been limited by a singular definition of generosity, but have interpreted the term freely. Some have chosen to engage with the city of Limerick, probing cultural and social identity, economic realities and the problematics of the everyday, while others propose their individual, alternative visions of generosity."

— Katerina Gregos

 FEATURED ARTISTS
2-4-page spread per artist (incl colour illus, artist’s statement, biography)

Arpy Adamyan (armenia) / Narda Alvarado (bolivia) / Mary Amirkhanyan (armenia) / An Anonymous Artist (greece) / Artists Without Walls (israel/palestine) / Colleen Bartley (ireland) / John Beattie (ireland) / Otto Berchem (usa/netherlands) / Marc Bijl (netherlands) / Sarah Browne (ireland) / Yvonne Buchheim (germany) / Centre of Attention (france/uk) / Nikos Charalambidis (cyprus) / Eleni Christodoulou (greece) / David Comiskey (usa) / Phil Coy (uk) / Miriam Cuddy (ireland) / Minerva Cuevas (mexico) / Juan Manuel Echavarría (colombia) / Neva Elliott (ireland) / Enso (ireland) / Ciara Finnegan (ireland) / Alexandros Georgiou (greece) / Máirín Grant (ireland) / Fiona Hackett (ireland) / Independent School of Art (usa) / Lisa Marie Johnson (ireland) / Tellervo Kalleinen (finland) / Ursula Kelly (ireland) /Gareth Kennedy (ireland) / Michael Klien (austria) / Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (finland) / Dimitri Kotsaras (greece) / Nevan Lahart (ireland) / Nicky Larkin (ireland) / Johanna Lecklin (finland) / Colette Lewis (ireland) / LSAD (ireland) / Seán Lynch (ireland) / Maeve McElligott (ireland) / Eoin McHugh (ireland) / Susan MacWilliam (ireland) / Panayiotis Michael (cyprus) / Michael Minnis (ireland) / Fiona Mulholland (ireland) / Jennifer Nelson (usa) / Áine Nic Giolla Coda (ireland) / Caitriona Ní Threasaigh (ireland) / Seamus Nolan (ireland) / Old News (denmark) / Dan Perjovschi (romania) / Deirdre A Power (ireland) / Christopher Reid (ireland) / Mario Rizzi (italy) / Paula Roush (portugal) / Jon Rubin (usa) / Jon Rubin (usa) / Julika Rudelius (germany/netherlands) / Mara Adamitz Scrupe (usa) / Chemi Rosado Seijo (puerto rico) / Anna Sherbany (uk/israel) / Superflex (denmark) / Nina Tanis (usa) / Davide Terlingo (ireland/italy / Mark Titchner (uk) / Daniel Vais (israel) / Kostis Velonis (greece) / Julian Walker (uk)/ Wochen Klausur (austria)