A statement from our Chief Executive Anne McReynolds in these unprecedented times
MAC International
2018
| Date: | 9 Nov 2018 - 31 Mar 2019 |
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| Time: | 10am - 6pm, 7 days a week |
| Price: | Free admission |
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Details
Spanning all three of the MAC’s galleries, MAC International provides a truly global perspective on contemporary art and presents a snapshot of some of the most urgent voices in contemporary practice operating in our world today.
Chosen from more than 800 submissions, this year's shortlist includes artists from Ireland, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Croatia Austria, France, Turkey, Palestine, USA and Canada. The artists featured in MAC International 2018 are:
Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan / Ali Cherri / Larissa Fassler / Nikolaus Gansterer / Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi & Simone Trabucchi) / Ronan McCrea / Aisling O’Beirn / Vesna Pavlović / Renata Poljak / Larissa Sansour / Özge Topçu.
The works in MAC International 2018 take many forms; from photography and film, through to installation, sculpture and painting. Conceptually, they address some of the main concerns facing artists, and wider society, today. Many of the artworks in this year’s MAC International address issues around land, borders and territory; some through an investigation of urban spaces, others through geological or archaeological enquiry. Other works critique the legitimacy of dominant historical and political narratives or call into question the very nature of fact and fiction in our apparently ‘post-truth’ world of fake news and social media. Other works explore more material concerns, providing investigations of particular mediums and modes of artistic expression.
What will be evident as you move through the gallery spaces is that not only do the works in MAC International 2018 provide an overview of contemporary artistic practice, but in engaging with dominant social, cultural and political concerns, they also provide a global perspective on the world we live in today.
One of the 13 artists featured in the project, deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to the exhibition, was awarded the prestigious MAC International Prize of 20,000 GBP. This is the largest art prize in Ireland and one of the few major art prizes in the UK. The MAC International Prize 2018 was awarded to Austrian artist Nikolaus Gansterer for his piece Wor(l)ding: a mesh work of sense of flux.
Previous winners of MAC International are Mairéad McClean (2014) and Jasmina Cibic (2016).
The MAC International jury for 2018 was comprised of Hugh Mulholland, Senior Curator at the MAC Belfast; Anne Barlow, Director at Tate St Ives; and Başak Şenova, Curator, CrossSections (Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm).
For an easy to read guide to the exhibition, why not check out our map? We make it easy to explore our galleries whether you have 5 minutes, 20 minutes or an hour to spend.
We highly recommend you download our audio guide here to accompany your tour of the exhibition. It is completely free and gives a curator's insight into the major themes of the exhibition.
The exhibition runs from November 9, 2018–March 31, 2019.
Supported by Arts Council NI, Belfast City Council and Tourism NI.
About the Artists
Aisling O'Beirn
Aisling O’ Beirn (b. 1968) is an Irish artist who lives and works in Belfast. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Solo shows include Another Day in Futile Battle Against the 2nd Law, MCAC; Idir Iarracht agus Teip/Between Attempt and Failure, Dillon Gallery, Belfast; Quaternion Quest, The LAB, Dublin and Spike in the Data, The Third Space, Belfast. Group shows include TULCA, The Headless City, Galway Arts Centre; Boolean Expressions, Glucksman Gallery, Cork and The Land of Zero, Crawford Gallery, Cork.
Ali Cherri
Ali Cherri (b. 1976) is a video and visual artist. His solo exhibitions include Dénaturé at Galerie Imane Farès, Paris; Somniculus at Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC, Bordeaux (2017); From Fragment to Whole at Jönköpings läns museum, Sweden (2017); A Taxonomy of Fallacies at Sursock Museum, Beirut (2016). His work has been exhibited in international museums including MMOMA, Moscow (2018), Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2018), Museo Egizio, Torino (2018), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017), MAXXI, Rome (2017); Guggenheim, New York (2016); Aichi Triennial, Japan (2016); Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju (2016). He is the recipient of Harvard University’s Robert E. Fulton Fellowship (2016) and Rockefeller Foundation Award (2017).
Anca Benera / Arnold Estefan
Benera (b. 1977) and Estefan (b. 1978) have been working collaboratively since 2011. Recent exhibitions include: The Trouble with Value, Onomatopee, Eindhoven (2018); Landscape that Remembers, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Germany (2018); Natural Histories. Traces of the Political, MUMOK Wien (2017); Remastered, Kunsthalle Krems (2017); Dreams&Dramas, NGBK Berlin (2017); Sights and Sounds, The Jewish Museum, New York (2016), We only went to Nasa together, MAK Center Los Angeles (2016); The School of Kyiv (2015); Global Control and Censorship, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2015); Der Brancusi-Effekt, Kunsthalle Wien (2014); Mom, am I Barbarian? 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013); Intense Proximity, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012).
Invernomuto
Simone Bertuzzi (b. 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (b. 1982) have been collaborating as Invernomuto since 2003. Although their work focuses primarily on the moving image and sound, they also integrate sculpture, performance and publishing into their practice. Invernomuto explores what remain of subcultures by moving through different media. Observed through unashamedly affected eyes, oral cultures and minor histories are laid open, their vernacular forms examined. Inauthentic materials play a fundamental role within this process, emphasizing the fictitious realities that inspire them. Bertuzzi and Trabucchi have developed individual lines of research into sound with the outlets Palm Wine and STILL, respectively.
Larissa Fassler
Larissa Fassler (b.1975, Vancouver) has lived and worked in Berlin since 1999. Focused on the symbiotic relationships between people and places, Larissa Fassler’s artistic practice reflects her interest in the architecture of cities and the way in which places affect people, psychologically and physically, and in turn how people’s perception, understanding and use of place is physically manifest in the built environment that surrounds them. Her work has recently been exhibited at the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial (2017); at the MAAT — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, in Lisbon (2017) and at the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris (2016).
Larissa Sansour
Larissa Sansour was born in 1973 in East Jerusalem, Palestine, and studied fine arts in London. Central to her work is the tug and pull between fiction and reality. In her recent works she uses fiction to address social and political issues. Working mainly with film, Sansour also produces installations, photos and sculptures. Her work is shown in film festivals and museums worldwide. She has shown her work at Tate Modern, MoMA, Centre Pompidou and the Istanbul Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include Bluecoat in Liverpool and Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen. Sansour lives and works in London.
Nikolaus Gansterer (Prize Winner 2018)
Nikolaus Gansterer (b. 1974) is an artist interested in the links between drawing, thinking and action. His practice is grounded in a trans-medial approach, underpinned by conceptual discourse in the context of performative visualisation. Currently he is a guest Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Gansterer’s fascination with diagrammatic figures resulted in site specific installations and durational performances. He is author of the books “Drawing a Hypothesis - Figures of Thought”, on the ontology of shapes of visualisations, and “Choreo-graphic Figures: Deviations from the Line”, which is about his development of experimental notation systems between the lines of choreography, drawing and writing.
Özge Topçu
Özge Topçu (b. 1987, Kirklareli, Turkey) lives and works in Lisbon and Berlin. She graduated from Yildiz Technical University, Combined Arts, Istanbul in 2014. Topçu’s work has been shown in group exhibitions in Berlin, London, Amsterdam, San Francesco and Istanbul. Prizes and awards include Siemens Art Competition and New Generation Contemporary Artist Turkey. Exhibitions include, Alteration Depression in 2014, Locality & Global Discourses 2015, an exhibition project with California University School of Art and recently she participated in Art Night London with her 'Agora' installation
Renata Poljak
Renata Poljak (b. 1974) has exhibited at numerous solo and group exhibitions, biennials and film festivals in Croatia and internationally. In 2010 Poljak showed a substantial selection of her films at the screening program of Prospective Cinema at the Centre Georges Pompidou and in October 2012 at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. In 2013 her solo show in NYC was selected as the show of the month by Village Voice. A retrospective shaped as the two parallel solo exhibitions in the art centers Occurence and Optica was featured in 2014 in Montreal. After two museum shows in Croatia her artist book was published by VFMK, Vienna.
Ronan McCrea
Ronan McCrea (b.1969) lives and works in Dublin. Solo exhibitions include Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (forthcoming 2019), Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2016, 2013, 2011); Enclave Gallery, Deptford, London (2013); Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2003), Glassbox, Paris (2002). Site-specific projects include School Play at CETNS School (2009) and Medium (Corporate Entities) (2008) for Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 2005 McCrea was one of the artists to represent Ireland at the 51st Venice Biennale. His work has been presented at group exhibitions at CCS Bard, Hessel Museum, New York (2016), P! Gallery, New York (2016), Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY (2011), Sinop, Turkey (2010), Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2009), Apexart, New York (2008). McCrea is currently a lecturer in Fine Art at Dublin Institute of Technology.
Vesna Pavlović
Vesna Pavlović (b. 1970, Serbia/US) holds MFA degree in Visual Arts from Columbia University. She has exhibited widely, including solo shows at the Phillips Collection Washington DC, Frist Art Museum Nashville, and Museum of History of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. Group shows include Untitled, 12th Istanbul Biennial, Württembergischen Kunstverein, Düsseldorf Germany, KUMU Art Museum Tallinn, Estonia, New Art Gallery Walsall UK, Bucharest Biennale 5 Romania, Photographers’ Gallery London, UK. She is a recipient of Fulbright Scholar Award, George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation fellowship, and Art Matters Grant. Vesna Pavlović’s Lost Art: Archive, Photography, and Display, by Morna O’Neill was published in 2017.
Meet the Judges
Hugh Mulholland
Hugh Mulholland is Senior Curator at the MAC, Belfast. He was previously Director, the third space gallery, Belfast (2006-2012) and Director of Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast (1997-2006) and was founding Director of Context Gallery Derry, (now CCA) (1992-1997). Mulholland has also worked as an independent curator and was Commissioner of Northern Ireland’s first presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2005 with a group exhibition titled ‘The Nature of Things’, he also curated Northern Ireland’s following exhibition at the Biennale in 2007 with a solo show of work by Willie Doherty. He was also curator for Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2006 & 2007 as well as curating exhibitions internationally in Berlin, Istanbul and Italy. He has held the position of Senior Curator of the MAC since 2012 where he has curated exhibitions with artists including; Johanna Billing, Peter Doig, Stuart Brisley, Lothar Gotz, Kara Walker, Peter Liversidge, Keith Wilson and David Hockney as well as numerous group exhibitions.
Anne Barlow
Anne Barlow is Director of Tate St Ives. She was previously Director of Art in General, New York (2007-2016), Curator of Education and Media Programs at the New Museum (1999-2006) New York, and Curator of Contemporary Art and Design, Glasgow Museums, Scotland (1994-1999). In her curatorial roles in the UK and US, Barlow has overseen museum collections and displays, new commissions, artist residencies and public programmes, and numerous institutional collaborations. She has initiated award-winning programmes including Museum as Hub (New Museum) and the What Now? symposium (Art in General), and curated exhibitions with artists including Dineo Seshee Bopape, Donna Huanca, Adelita Husni-Bey, Marwa Arsanios, Basim Magdy, Jill Magid, Shezad Dawood and Surasi Kusolwong. Barlow has published with institutions including the New Museum, Henry Moore Institute, Liverpool University Press/Tate Gallery Liverpool, Journal of Curatorial Studies, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the Sharjah Art Foundation. She was Curator of the 5th Bucharest Biennale (2012), Co-Curator of the Latvian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), and a guest project curator for The Jerusalem Show VII (2014) and the 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, Georgia (2015).
Başak Şenova
Başak Şenova, Curator, CrossSections (Vienna, Helsinki and Stockholm). She studied Literature and Graphic Design (MFA in Graphic Design and Ph.D. in Art, Design and Architecture at Bilkent University) and attended the 7th Curatorial Training Programme of Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. She is a founding member of NOMAD, as well as the organizer of "Upgrade!Istanbul" and "ctrl_alt_del" sound art project. As an assistant professor, she lectured in various universities in Turkey and in 2017 she was the resident fellow at the University of the Arts, Helsinki in co-operation with HIAP. Şenova has been writing on art, technology and media, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions since 1995. She is one of the editorial correspondents of ibraaz.org and Turkish correspondent of Flash Art International. She curated Zorlu Center Collection for two years (2011-2012) by also acting as the editor of its publications. Senova is an advisory board member of the Istanbul Biennial and a member of the International Biennial Association’s (IBA) editorial board.
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