SUMMER PREVIEW WITH BASSAM ISSA AL-SABAH • SUMMER PREVIEW WITH BASSAM ISSA AL-SABAH •
Everyone is welcome to attend but capacity is limited, please book your (free) ticket via Eventbrite
Join us for a special reception at Kunstverein Aughrim, to visit the exhibition you are in heaven but suddenly everything begins to burn. Visitors will be invited to smell a new fragrance created by Al-Sabah, taste specially prepared refreshments, encounter new portals to the artist’s work around the town, and join village-wide festivities as part of Aughrim’s newly revived Craic in the Granite Music & Arts Festival, with a programme of live music, workshops, readings, circus games and family entertainment ongoing throughout the day.
Schedule
3pm: assemble at Kunstverein Aughrim for staggered visits to the exhibition you are in heaven but suddenly everything begins to burn
3:30pm: refreshments for mouth and nose, with curatorial notes whispered in the ear
4pm: group walk to the Park and Pavilion at the National Disabled Angling Facility to see more of the artist’s work on location
4:30pm: Craic in the Granite Music & Arts Festival with live local music into the evening (festival programme ends at 7pm)
Access
Kunstverein Aughrim is located off Main Street in the village of Aughrim. There is limited on-street parking around the town. Kunstverein Aughrim is unfortunately not currently wheelchair accessible, due to a series of stone and concrete steps at the threshold. The Park and Pavilion at the National Disabled Angling Facility are wheelchair accessible and have bathroom facilities. The walk from Kunstverein Aughrim to the Park and Pavilion is approximately 100 meters over a busy road and uneven footpaths. If you have questions or specific access requirements please contact us via email and we will do our best to facilitate your full participation.
Getting to Aughrim
Aughrim is around 70 km from Dublin City Centre. If you are coming via public transport for this event we recommend taking the Route 2 Expressway bus from Dublin to Wexford. Take the 13:25 bus from Dublin (Busáras stop) to Arklow (Lidl stop) where a member of our team will meet you on arrival at 14:42 (subject to prior arrangement by email). The same bus can be taken back to Dublin at 18:12 or 19:42, and a lift from Aughrim to Arklow will again be provided (subject to prior arrangement).
About the artist:
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah works across digital animation, painting, sculpture and textiles creating visions of resistance, transformation and queer possibility. Recent exhibitions include: Uncensored Lilac, in collaboration with Jennifer Mehigan at Silent Green, Transmediale, Berlin (2024), IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE TAKE THIS!, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin (2022), I AM ERROR, Gasworks, London (2021), and De La Warr Pavilion, Sussex (2022); Dissolving Beyond The Worm Moon, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (2019); and Illusions of Love Dyed by Sunset, The LAB Gallery, Dublin (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Queer Embodiment and Social Fabric at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2021-2022), The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (2021) and Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2020). Recent screenings include the Barbican, London (2022), Transmediale, Berlin (2021), EX-IS, South Korea (2021) and Jeu de Paume, Paris (2021). Al-Sabah's work is part of collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Arts Council of Ireland and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. In 2021 he received the Golden Fleece Award and he is currently a studio member at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
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This new commission is produced by Kunstverein Aughrim in collaboration with the Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, and supported by Wicklow County Council Arts Festival Award Scheme and The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, as part of the Craic in the Granite Music & Arts Festival 2024.
Kunstverein Aughrim’s ongoing collaboration with Bassam Issa Al-Sabah is made possible with the support of The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.