Galway’s Capital of Culture 2020 bid book contains 50 different projects that will take place during the year, with half of them to be held outside of the capital.
Other projects that were submitted but not developed enough in time for the application will also be nurtured over the next few years while the bid team is also open to accepting fresh projects as nearly a third the budget has yet to be committed.
Here are five of the most ambitious earmarked for Galway’s stint as European Capital of Culture in four years’ time.
Middle Island by Druid will be the company’s first European collaboration in its 40-year history.
Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marie Mullen with design by Francis O’Connor, Middle Island is based on Testament, a novella and play written by novelist Colm Toibín which tells the story of Mary’s life after the death of her son, Jesus.
The performance starts on Rosaveal Pier in Connemara and then moves to Inis Meáin by boat, with the audience part of the journey as they embark on the sailing with the troupe.
The piece will involve ten professional actors and 20 performers drawn from the local community.
“The line between spectator and participant will be blurred as the audience journey mirrors that of countless exiles heading to strange and foreign lands, not knowing what to expect,” according to the team.
“Mary’s life of exile and fear will be explored along with themes of displacement, peripherality, migration, indigenous cultures, minority languages, multilingualism and religion.”
The project will be staged on the Isle of Corsica where local participants will be sought.
Druid is also working with Theatre Cymru Wales to research minority European languages.
Hope It Rains is a project which aims to change our attitude to Galway’s unpredictable weather in a region where it rains 225 days a year
Dancer and choreographer Ríonach Ní Néill, who has a background in urban geography, will invite people to collaborate and create weatherproof projects that inspire wet weather activity and innovative design for rural and urban locations.
She will design playgrounds and explore green infrastructure, water management, renewable energy, landscape and heritage.
“Using the three principles of Exchange – Play – Change, Hope It Rains aims to effect a cultural change in our relationship with Galway’s weather, so that, by 2020, Galway will be the place to come to because it rains – and blows.”
The project connects experts in art, design, sport and science from Germany, Sweden and France with citizen inventors to create a programme of projects to make Galway’s people and places more weather and climate resilient, and in effect “weather-proof” the whole Galway 2020 programme.
One of the aims of the project is make 40 of Galway’s 63 playgrounds more weatherproof and weather-interactive by 2020, by introducing at least one element to enable outdoor play, physical activity and social interaction year round.
A rain-propelled musical kinetic drainpipe system will harvest water for shopping centres and retail warehouses, which will counter noise and air pollution while capturing a scarce commodity.
Wind-powered melodic musical instruments will be integrated into wind Farms at Spiddal and Moycullen, transforming the wind-farm site into a kinetic musical sculpture.
Mirrored Landscapes will see artist John Gerrard create three major new sculptures.
The pieces consist of a 100 metre pavilion covered in highly reflective mirror, allowing the building to melt into the landscapes of the River Corrib in the city, Connemara and Santander in Northern Spain.
Each sculpture is connected to a local power source, hydroelectric, wind or sun energy.
The Santander Pavilion will subsequently tour to other European locations in 2021 and, partnering with the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art (TBC) and the Simon Preston Galley in New York, the Galway International Arts Festival would tour the two ‘mobile’ objects to Texas and connect them with wind and solar resources.
These pieces will have major international impact and will become a ‘destination’ visual art experience for people. “It will inspire and amaze in equal measure,” according to the programme.
The fourth project is Spiritus, which will be based at the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas, celebrating its 700th anniversary in 2020.
It has three main elements to it – the opera written for amateur participation, Noyes Fludde; Ceol Naofa, a festival of sacred music, and a residential performance partnership between Resurgam Choir Ireland and the German company Elbipolis.
A production of Dialogues des Carmélites is being developed with RTÉ orchestras, quartet and choirs, involving mass participation among the public.
Cellisimo Music for Galway is a ten-day festival dedicated to the cello.
Kuros Torkzadeh, a local Galway county luthier, will design and craft a cello from local bog oak and sheep gut strings.
The festival will collaborate with and commission Irish and European ensembles, soloists and traditional music group while soloists from Zagreb, Croatia, be the resident ensemble.
Cellissimo will reach out to new younger audiences by promoting ‘classical clubbing’, a trend which has seen classical music performance moved from concert halls into venues more associated with dancing and drinking.
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