Kilkenny Arts Festival Programme 2012

kilkennyarts.ie

Box Office 16 John Street, Kilkenny Open from 9 July. No booking fees.

Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, pre-festival weekend (4-5 August) 12 noon-5pm During the Festival: daily 10.30am-7.30pm Tel +353 (0)56 775 2175 Email boxoffice@kilkennyarts.ie

Book online from 20 June at

kilkennyarts.ie Board of Directors

Emer Foley (Chair), Fergus Cronin, Susan Proud, Maureen Kennelly, Anna O’Sullivan, Conor Langton, Thomas O’Toole, Michael O’Toole, Isabell Smyth, Orla Kelly, Gobnait Kearney.

Festival Team Director & CEO Rosemary Collier Office Manager Valerie Ryan Production Manager Aidan Wallace Marketing Manager Tracy Ryan Fundraising & Development Manager Marian Flannery Programme Co-ordinator Evelyn McNamara Box Office Manager Cathy Hogan Programme Editor Alistair Daniel Publicity Cormac Kinsella Additional PR Christine Monk Local PR Co-ordinator Melanie O’Connor Marketing & Development Assistant Rosemary Mulvey Festival Bloggers Ken McGuire & team Volunteer Co-ordinator Niamh Duffe Artist Liaison Cornelia McCarthy Assistant Artist Liaison Ciara Cavanagh Graphic Design Íde Deloughry Web Design Pixel Design Official IT Provider BITS Festival Image Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Curators Theatre, Dance, Opera, Family, Street, Film Rosemary Collier Classical Music Susan Proud Music Gerry Godley Wired Matthew Nolan Literature Cormac Kinsella Craft Angela O’Kelly Visual Art Josephine Kelliher Symbols guide Wheelchair Accessible

Not Wheelchair Accessible

Kilkenny Arts Festival thanks the curators, artists and performers who make the festival such a unique experience.

Thanks to our enthusiastic and hard-working volunteers who give their time so generously.

Thanks to the festival partners and friends.

We couldn’t do this without your support.

Thanks to everyone who is involved with the festival this year.

You make it happen!

Thanks to Sacha Milroy, Peter Huntley & the SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE THEATRE team.

The Kilkenny Arts Festival gives special thanks to: Alan Slattery, all the staff at Kilkenny Castle (OPW), Amanda Horan, Andrew Nangle, Anthony Brady, Brian Keyes, Brian Tyrrell & Kilkenny Borough Council, Briege McAtee, Business2Arts, Caroline Coode, Catriona Crowe, Catriona Montgomery, Christine Monk, Cian O’Brien, Claire Faithhorn & Anne Bonnar at the British Council, Clodagh O’Connell, Conor Power, Damian Downes, Debra O’Neill, Declan Kelly & Stephen Meahl at Teneo, Donal O’Brien & Kilkenny Civic Trust, Eamonn & Eddie Langton, Edel Mitchell, Emily Miller Wine Centre & Meubles Furniture, Eugene Downes, Father Louis Hughes, Gary Breen, Ger Cody & the Watergate Theatre, Grace Fegan & all at Kilkenny Design Centre, Jane Russell & the Cat Laughs team, Jennifer Churchward & Fáilte Ireland, Joanne Taaffe, Joe Crockett & Kilkenny County Council, John Purcell, Julia Crampton, Julie Knight, Kathleen Moran, Karen Hennessy & Ann Mulrooney & the Crafts Council of Ireland, Karan Thompson, Ken McGuire, Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, Kilkenny Tourism, Krystle Fennelly, Liobhan O’Hora, Maria Kelly, Mary Butler & Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, Mary Cody, Mary Hickson, Michael White, Mike Leahy, Roisin McQuillan & staff at Rothe House, Ruadhan, Margaret & Pat Collier, Sabine O’Dwyer, Sergeant Gary Gordon, St Canice’s Kilkenny Credit Union, Sue Nunn, Sylvia Corcoran, the Dean, Chapter & staff of St Canice’s Cathedral, Una Carmody, Una McCarthy & all at the Arts Council, Vincent Dempsey, Willie Meighan & everybody else for everything else.

Parking Available

Limited Parking Available

No Parking Available

principAl FunDers

funDErs 01

HeADline event pArtners

KILKENNY

event pArtners

o’neill foley

MeDiA pArtners

culturAl pArtners

Embassy of Russian Federation in Ireland

Check out our GREAT PLACES to Stay, Eat and Drink with our loyal Festival Partners, pages 62-3.

how to book

02 How to Book your tickets

Online today at kilkennyarts.ie

By phone from 9 July on 056 775 2175

In person at the festival box office from 9 July: 16 John Street, Kilkenny From 9 July: weekdays 10am-6pm Pre-festival weekend (4-5 August): 12 noon-5pm During the festival: daily 10.30am-7.30pm Ticket Concessions

Don’t Be Late!

Ticket concessions are available for students, senior citizens and the unwaged. Appropriate ID will be requested on presentation of your ticket at the venue.

Please arrive at the venue at least 15 minutes before the performance and allow 15 minutes for traffic and parking. Late admission is not guaranteed but will be offered if possible.

Post If you have purchased your tickets online and have opted to have them posted out to you, tickets will arrive two weeks before the event.

A fee of €2.50 applies to international post while a fee of €1 applies to domestic post.

Ticket Collection If you have purchased your tickets online and have opted to collect them, tickets can be collected from the box office from 9 July. To locate the box office see the map on the inside back cover.

Weather Many of our performances are outdoors so please dress appropriately for the weather!

Refunds Kilkenny Arts Festival has a no refund or exchange policy on all tickets purchased.

Gift Cards Share the festival experience with someone you love and buy a festival gift card online at www.kilkennyarts.ie/festival/gift-card

Exclusive Offers Avail of exclusive festival offers and updates by joining our mailing list online at www.kilkennyarts.ie/festival

Booking Fees No booking or administration fees apply on ticket purchases.

Group Bookings - If there are 10 or more people in your group please contact the box office management about group discounts on boxoffice@kilkennyarts.ie or phone 056 775 2175.

St Canice’s Cathedral - Please note there is restricted viewing in the unreserved seating.

03

It’s been a delight putting together my first festival programme.

Kilkenny is a city that offers unique experiences for festival audiences, and I’ve worked closely with our specialist team of curators to bring you a range of exciting work from world-class artists in every strand, from Classical Music to Literature, Craft to Wired, Visual Art to Music, Film to Theatre & Dance and – for the first time – Opera!

This year’s programme showcases the extraordinary range of spaces in Kilkenny and reveals this city in new and exciting ways, and I hope that, whoever you are, you’ll find something inspirational in it for you.

WELCOME

Welcome to Kilkenny Arts Festival 2012

Gerry Godley Curator: Music

Josephine Kelliher Curator: Visual Art

At the heart of this festival is the glorious production of As You Like It by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It is a privilege to welcome one the world’s leading theatre companies to Ireland for the first time, and a thrill to bring festival audiences one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, performed outdoors in the heart of our beautiful medieval city.

Cormac Kinsella Curator: Literature

Of course, realising a festival of this scale would not be possible without the generosity of our principal funders, event partners, sponsors, business partners and friends. Your continued support enables us to entice the very best artists from all over the world to Kilkenny for ten days each year. We hope that our partnership with you will continue to flourish as we work towards our fortieth festival next year.

Finally, the festival also depends on the dedication of its board members and the extremely hard-working festival team, and I would like to acknowledge their individual and collective contributions in making this festival happen.

I look forward to welcoming artists and audiences alike to a (hopefully!) sun-drenched Kilkenny Arts Festival in August.

Rosemary Collier Director & CEO Curator: Theatre, Dance, Film, Family, Street, Opera

Matthew Nolan Curator: Wired

Angela O’Kelly Curator: Craft

Susan Proud

Curator: Classical Music

04 thEatrE

This summer – for the first time – SHAKeSPeARe’S glOBe THeATRe comes to Ireland as director James Dacre brings his acclaimed production of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies to Kilkenny. A small group of travelling players take up residence in the Castle Yard to perform As You Like It, using a stage based on paintings and etchings from Shakespeare’s time. rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke, falls in love with Orlando, but her usurping uncle banishes her from court.

Disguised as a boy, she seeks out her father in the Forest of Arden, and it’s there that she meets Orlando again... Filled with cross-dressing and love notes, poetry and satire, slapstick and passion, this gloriously funny romance is not to be missed!

Please note: this is an outdoor performance and patrons are advised to dress appropriately.

ShAKeSPeAre’S GLobe theAtre coMPANy

As you like it

by WiLLiAM ShAKeSPeAre the castle yard at Kilkenny design friday 10 - Sunday 19 August fri 10, Sat 11, Mon 13, tues 14, thurs 16, fri 17 & Sat 18: 7.30pm Sun 12: 2pm, Sun 19: 6pm Admission €25/€22

GLOBE ACCOMMODATION PARTNERS

Directing Shakespeare with director of the Abbey Theatre

James Dacre

director of As You Like It Council Chambers City Hall, High Street Sunday 12 August 12pm Admission €13/€11

Meet the Cast

Directing Shakespeare demands the full range of a director’s talents. How do you make a production distinctive and unique? How do you engage scholars and school kids alike? In conversation with Fiach Mac Conghail, director James Dacre takes you behind the scenes of As You Like It, offering a fascinating glimpse of a leading international theatre company at work.

Join us in the Parade Tower after the show for a glass of wine and a chance to meet the cast of As You Like It, in conversation with our Festival Director, Rosemary Collier.

Murderous Laughter: Shakespeare in the Minefield with Fintan O’Toole Derbhle Crotty

05

Theatre

Fiach Mac Conghail

The Watergate Theatre Friday 17 August 3pm Admission €13/€11

The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle Sunday 12 August 5.30pm Free but ticketed. Book online.

On 30 May 1593, Shakespeare’s great rival Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in circumstances rife with political intrigue. The murder clearly weighed on Shakespeare’s mind as it crops up time and again in his work, most notably in As You Like It. Join Fintan O’Toole, author of Shakespeare is Hard, But So is Life, as he explores the murky relationship between the writer, his plays and the violent police state in which he lived. O’Toole is joined by leading Irish actress Derbhle Crotty, who brings to life key passages from As You Like It and other plays.

The staging of As You Like It at Kilkenny Arts Festival is supported by Next Door Neighbours. Next Door Neighbours is a partnership programme between the British Council and the Arts Council in association with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, exploring the relationship between Ireland and the UK through the arts. Across seven festivals in Ireland this summer, the programme presents a series of events that aims to strengthen and deepen the relationship between the neighbouring countries in parallel with the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Cultural Olympiad.

For more details see www.kilkennyarts.ie/events

coiScÉiM (ireland)

swiMMing witH My MotHer

DanCE

06

A mother and son navigate the ebb and flow of their shared history in this heart-warming dance duet performed by acclaimed Irish choreographer David Bolger and his 78-year-old mother madge. Told with affectionate humour and a genuine sense of wonder, Swimming with My Mother is a gentle and joyful celebration of the things we pass on and the things we inherit.

CoisCéim is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary dance companies. Led by artistic director David Bolger, the company has won numerous awards, including two coveted Fringe First Awards at the edinburgh Festival.

Swimming with My Mother is presented with Deep End Dance, a short dance film made for the Arts Council/rTÉ Dance on the Box series.

IN THIS LIGHT AND HUMANE DANCE WORK YOU COULD ALMOST SMELL THE SEA AND FEEL THE GRAINY SAND BETWEEN YOUR TOES Irish Theatre Magazine SO LOVELY AND GENUINE IT BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES Scotland on Sunday

the Watergate theatre, Parliament Street Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 August Sat 11: 3pm (followed by post-show talk) Sun 12: 2pm & 6pm Admission €18/€15.50

corK oPerA hoUSe (ireland)

opEra

DiDo & AeneAs by heNry PUrceLL SIMPLY MIRACULOUS The Irish Examiner

Director JOhN O’BrIeN Cast CArA O’SULLIVAN, MArY heGArTY, CAITrIN JOhNSSON & SIMON MOrGAN

“If you’ve never been to an opera,” wrote The Irish Examiner, “this production of Dido and Aeneas is a good place to start.” And if you have, you’re in for a surprise. Featuring home-grown stars Cara O’Sullivan and mary Hegarty, and a bold new orchestration

by Marja Gaynor, Cork Opera House’s production of henry Purcell’s masterpiece takes the tragic story of Queen Dido and her Trojan lover Aeneas and turns it into a sexy, steampunk extravaganza. Don’t miss one of the highlights of the festival!

the Watergate theatre, Parliament Street Wednesday 15 & thursday 16 August Weds 15: 8pm (followed by post-show talk) thurs 16: 7pm Admission €25/€22

JoonHo pArk Organ

St canice’s cathedral Saturday 11 August 1pm Admission €15/€13

Programme LOUIS VIerNe from Symphony no. 1 for Organ rOBerT SChUMANN Four Sketches, op. 58 OLIVIer MeSSIAeN from Messe de la Pentecôte FeLIX MeNDeLSSOhN Thema and Variation MAUrICe DUrUFLÉ Suite op. 5 APPrOX. 60 MINUTeS

Programme GIOVANNI GABrIeLI Magnificat JOhN TAVeNer Birthday Sleep JOSePh hAYDN Tod und Schlaf WOLFGANG AMADeUS MOZArT V’amo di core teneramente ArVO PÄrT …Which was the son of …

LAJOS BÁrDOS Osz Kanon JONAThAN NANGLe To see a landscape as it is when I am not there (World Premiere) hANS LeO hASSLer Ach weh des Leiden APPrOX. 80 MINUTeS

the black Abbey Abbey Street Saturday 11 August 8pm Admission €15/€13

(S. Korea)

CLassiCaL MusiC 07

Since his days as resident organist at the Seoul Presbyterian Church, Joonho Park has been making a name for himself on the international stage, performing all over the world and winning numerous awards, including first prize at the Dublin International Organ Competition in 2011. his programme for Kilkenny explores the organ music of great nineteenth and twentieth-century composers, from Schumann’s playful Four Sketches to Messiaen’s Messe de la Pentecôte, and the Toccata from Maurice Duruflé’s Suite op. 5.

irisH youtH cHoir: 30 yeArs on song GreG BeArDSeLL conductor

(ireland)

Under its dynamic conductor Greg Beardsell, the irish youth Choir – comprised of over 100 of Ireland’s finest singers aged between 18 and 28 – is renowned for its visceral and profoundly moving performances. In its 30th anniversary year, the choir returns to Kilkenny to present Soundworlds: a tribute to all free-thinkers, free-imaginers and freesingers, past and present, featuring pieces by Mozart, haydn and Arvo Pärt alongside the world premiere of a new piece by cutting-edge Irish composer Jonathan Nangle.

The Jonathan Nangle piece was made possible through the Arts Council commissioning scheme. Jonathan is exhibiting a series of interactive sound sculptures at the heritage Council during the festival. See page 26 for details.

The Irish Youth Choir is a project of the Association of Irish Choirs.

08 lA MorrA LUZ DE ALVA (THE LIGHT OF DAWN): SPANISH SONGS OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE

CLassiCaL MusiC

(Switzerland)

NOT TO BE MISSED Diapason

la morra is an international ensemble of young early Music specialists. Since forming in 2000, they have toured all over europe and the US, taking some of the most prestigious early Music events by storm. For their Irish debut, the ensemble explores the music of Spain in that explosive period: the latefifteenth and early-sixteenth century. Arianna Savall and Petter Johansen join Tore eketorp, Corina Marti and Michal Gondko to perform highlights from this extraordinarily beautiful repertoire, once beloved of the Spanish aristocracy.

eero HÄMeennieMi BoMBAy JAyAsHri & ENSEMBLE and

ExCELLENT Early Music

APPROx. 60 MINUTES

St canice’s cathedral Sunday 12 August 8pm Admission €25/€22

(finland)

(india)

APPrOX. 60 MINUTeS (NO INTerVAL)

St canice’s cathedral Monday 13 August 8pm Admission €18/€15.50

Finnish composer eero Hämeenniemi presents a unique cross-cultural collaboration that effortlessly blends the music of two distinguished classical traditions: Indian and european. A quartet of extraordinary musicians, including markku luolajan-mikkola and mikko Perkola, two of the foremost viola da gamba artists in the world, lutenist eero Palviainen and tabla-player Sai Shravanam, explore classical pieces by the great French composers Marin Marais and François Couperin, as well as the englishman John Jenkins. The concert climaxes with a performance of hämeenniemi’s song cycle set to the ghazals (or ‘poems’) of the great Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib, and performed by Bombay Jayashri, the leading South Indian classical singer of our time.

Photo: Tomasz Trzebiatowski

Photo: Margo Borggreve

CLassiCaL MusiC

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polinA lescHenko

ilyA gringolts

polinA lescHenko ilyA gringolts nAtHAn BrAuDe tHorleiF tHeDÉen

piano

nAtHAn BrAuDe Photo: Daniel Herendi

violin

viola

(international)

Programme FrÉDÉrIC ChOPIN Polonaise Brillante (version for viola and piano) JOSePh hAYDN Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano MAUrICe rAVeL Duo for Violin and Cello GABrIeL FAUrÉ Après un Rêve GABrIeL FAUrÉ Piano Quartet no. 1 in C minor, op. 15

tHorleiF tHeDÉen

cello

In her first appearance at the festival back in 2009, pianist Polina leschenko delighted St Canice’s with her phenomenal technique and deep sensitivity. This year she returns with a quartet of outstanding musicians, including iyla gringolts, “one of the most inspirational violinists today” (The Financial Times); Nathan Braude, a young viola player with “the qualities of a world-class soloist” (Limburgs Dagblad); and Swedish cellist Torleif Thedéen, professor at the edsberg Music Institute in Stockholm.

Together, this exciting quartet presents an enchanting programme including Chopin’s festive Polonaise Brillante, written when he was just 19 years old, ravel’s Duo for Violin and Cello, dedicated to the memory of Debussy, and Fauré’s dream of romantic elopement, Après un Rêve, along with his hauntingly beautiful Piano Quartet in C minor.

DUrATION 80 MINUTeS

St canice’s cathedral tuesday 14 August 8pm Admission €22/€19

Embassy of Russian Federation in Ireland

le concert spirituel THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH SACRED MUSIC (france)

herVÉ NIQUeT director

Photo: Eric Manas

CLassiCaL MusiC

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STAGGERING MUSICAL QUALITY It’s 25 years since harpsichordist, organist, pianist, vocalist, composer and conductor Ouest France hervé Niquet founded an ensemble devoted to reviving the works of the great French composers. Since then le Concert Spirituel has made a name for itself on the Programme international stage as one of the world’s leading Baroque music ensembles. Now, as part Te Deum ‘à la française’ Beata viscera mariae virginis of its anniversary tour, the ensemble returns to Kilkenny for a concert celebrating the (conductus of the XII century) music of the golden age of French spirituality. Join us in St Canice’s as ten outstanding MArC-ANTOINe ChArPeNTIer female soloists testify to the exceptional dramatic sense of the French ‘Grand Siècle’.

Designed to recreate the atmosphere of a seventeenth-century mass, and featuring the Ouverture pour le sacre work of Jean-Baptiste Lully (favourite composer of Louis XIV), Marc-Antoine Charpentier d’un évêque JeAN-BAPTISTe LULLY and Louis le Prince, this concert promises a very special evening.

O Dulcissime Domine LOUIS Le PrINCe Mass: Macula non est in te St canice’s cathedral MArC-ANTOINe ChArPeNTIer thursday 16 August 8.30pm Magnificat

Admission €30/€26

APPrOX. 90 MINUTeS

(Netherlands)

(ireland)

piano

Two years ago, Dutch baritone maarten Koningsberger and pianist Finghin Collins held a packed St Canice’s rapt with a recital of Schumann’s Dichterliebe (The Poet’s Love) alongside songs by APPrOX. 70 MINUTeS Brahms, Duparc and Butterworth. This year they join forces once more to perform another celebrated song cycle. Winterreise (Winter Journey), the second of Schubert’s song cycles based on the work of German poet Wilhelm Müller, is a collection of “numbinglySt canice’s cathedral beautiful songs” (Alex ross, The New Yorker), and friday 17 August 8.30pm “our civilization’s greatest poem of existential Admission €22/€19 estrangement and isolation” (Karol Berger).

Programme FrANZ SChUBerT Winterreise, op. 89, D. 911

AT THE NATIONAL CONCERT HALL

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Featuring

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Pink Martini Clannad Anúna The 27 Club with Jack L For further information visit www.nch.ie or call the Box Office on 01 417 0000

Photo: Colm Hogan

baritone

CLassiCaL MusiC

MAArten koningsBerger FingHin collins

CLassiCaL MusiC

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Programme LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt HECTOR BERLIOZ Les Nuits d’Été LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Mass in C major, op. 86 APPROx. 80 MINUTES

FerGUS SheIL conductor rÓISÍN O’GrADY soprano BrIDGeT KNOWLeS mezzo-soprano JAMeS eDWArDS tenor GrAeMe DANBY bass

kilkenny Arts FestivAl cHoir AnD orcHestrA

(ireland)

THE EVENING’S SOLO GLORIES CAME FROM THE COMMANDING ExPRESSIVENESS OF SOPRANO AILEEN ITANI, WHOSE DUET WITH BRIDGET KNOWLES ALSO GLOWED BEAUTIFULLY The Irish Times

[THE KAF CHOIR’S PERFORMANCE OF BEETHOVEN’S CHORAL FANTASY] ENDED IN A BLAZE OF GLORY The Irish Times

After phenomenally successful performances in 2010 and 2011, the Kilkenny Arts Festival Choir & Orchestra is back to bring the classical programme to a triumphant close in St Canice’s. Following an intensive series of workshops and rehearsals led by experienced singers under the watchful eye of conductor Fergus Sheil, the choir and orchestra will perform Beethoven’s cantata Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage), and his Mass in C major (a work commissioned

by Prince Nikolaus esterhazy II to celebrate the name day of his wife).

Berlioz’s sublimely passionate Les Nuits d’Été (Summer Nights) is scored for three soloists and orchestra and was the first orchestral song cycle ever written. With soloists including mezzo-soprano Bridget Knowles, bass graeme Danby and tenor James edwards, this promises to be another night to remember in St Canice’s.

St canice’s cathedral Saturday 18 August 8pm Admission €30/€26

AN INTOxICATING AFFAIR, VISCERAL AND GROOVECENTRIC YET ALSO NUANCED AND MULTILAYERED All About Jazz

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AZiZ sAHMAoui & university oF gnAwA (Morocco)

Photo: Max Carpio

Aziz Sahmaoui is “one of Morocco’s great fusion exponents” (The Guardian). raised on gnawa music – a celebratory trance music blending sub-Saharan influences with Berber and Sufi songs – he moved to Paris and co-founded the legendary Orchestre National de Barbès, mixing reggae with north African influences, before playing with Weather report’s Joe Zawinul. Now at last he has his own band, and it’s no surprise that they play a rich and heady brew of sounds, mixing traditional gnawa songs with Sahmaoui’s own compositions. Their first album was “a thrilling debut” (The Observer) and their live shows are equally stunning, setting Sahmaoui’s rich, full-throated vocals to visceral, fast-paced songs played on a breathtaking array of instruments from the guitar to the gimbri.

seÁn cArpio

Set theatre, John Street Saturday 11 August 10pm Admission €22/€19

(ireland)

Drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Seán Carpio has studied everything from jazz in Banff to Carnatic percussion in Bangalore. Over the last eight years he has built a reputation as “the finest drummer ever produced here” (The Irish Times), performing and recording all over the world with artists like Mark Garry and double-bassist henri Texier, and now he’s coming to Kilkenny to play his first full solo gig. Drawing on his breathtaking knowledge of musical forms and vocal styles, Carpio plays a blend of acoustic and electronic music that explores shifting perspectives in rhythm.

the hole in the Wall, 17 high Street Sunday 12 August 1pm Admission €12/€10

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FiDil solo cissokHo and

THE MIGHTY FIDIL ARE, WITHOUT DOUBT, AMONGST THE VERY FINEST FIDDLERS WE’VE EVER HAD AT BLAZIN’ IN BEAULY Bruce MacGregor, Blazin’ Fiddles and BBC Radio Scotland

(ireland)

with special guest

sekou keitA

(Senegal)

THERE WERE SOME FULL TILT DONEGAL REELS, BUT THE SHOW-STOPPER WAS SOLO’S SOLO, ONE MIGHT SAY, AS HE …

PRODUCED DAZZLING BURSTS OF IMPROVISATION The Scotsman

Senegal meets Donegal in the Set tonight as two groundbreaking acts join forces for a mouthwatering collaboration. Fidil – comprised of Aidan O’Donnell, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, and Damien McGeehan – is one of the most exciting instrumental groups to have emerged from the traditional music scene in recent years, and blew the audience away at Cleere’s in 2010 with its exhilarating take on traditional tunes. Seventh-generation griot Solo Cissokho is a master of the kora, the beguiling 21-stringed African harp with its cascades of rippling notes and addictive West African grooves. Together, they are simply spellbinding. Don’t miss this unique blend of continents, personalities and styles.

Set theatre, John Street Monday 13 August 9pm Admission €18/€15.50

In 1981, Steve Cooney, then an Australian rock guitarist, bought a one-way ticket to Ireland and never looked back. Since then he has transformed himself into a “musical polymath” (The Irish Times), performing and recording with a host of musicians, traditional and contemporary, including Sharon Shannon, Dermot Byrne, Altan and Martin hayes. his collaboration with Kerry accordion player Seamus Begley was one of the most popular traditional dance bands of recent years, while his songs have been recorded by Mary Black among others. For this lunchtime concert in St John’s he showcases his astonishing range, mixing poetry and songs, and playing everything from the electric guitar to the digeridoo.

(Australia)

Photo: Hauke Steinberg

COONEY RESTORES THE ANCIENT LINK BETWEEN LYRE AND LYRIC, BETWEEN POETRY AND PERFORMANCE, THE RHAPSODY AND RASCALITY Seamus Heaney

St John’s Priory, John Street tuesday 14 August 1pm Admission €15/€13

MAttHiAs loiBner

(Austria)

A TECHNICAL WIZARD, COAxING OUT OF HIS CUSTOM-MADE HURDY-GURDY A VAST ARRAY OF SOUNDS – FROM THE MELLOW TO THE WONDERFULLY RAUCOUS Sofi Morgensen

Photo: Barbora Fabianova

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MusiC

steve cooney

matthias loibner began his career as a classically trained musician playing piano, guitar and trombone, but the first time he picked up the hurdy-gurdy, everything changed. An extraordinary instrument that sounds like a string quartet, a theremin and a set of bagpipes all rolled into one, the hurdy-gurdy has played a central role in folk and classical traditions all over europe, and Loibner is a master. Known as the “Jimi hendrix of the hurdy-gurdy” for his uniquely expressive style, Loibner’s explorations of a range of musical traditions have led him all over the world, and he has expanded the range of the instrument using pedals and computer technology. In Loibner’s hands the hurdy-gurdy is perfectly suited to everything from klezmer music to Schubert’s Winterreise and the hole in the Wall is the perfect venue for its timeless, captivating sound.

the hole in the Wall, 17 high Street Wednesday 15 August 1pm Admission €15/€13

THE VARIETY OF MUSICAL STYLES … IS BREATHTAKING Songlines

Photo: www.jazzfoto.at

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A DIZZYING VIRTUOSO OF RUNAWAY CLARINET The Observer

ivo pApAsov AnD His BulgAriAn weDDing BAnD

Set theatre, John Street Wednesday 15 August 9pm Admission €22/€19

(bulgaria)

Bulgarians call him the “aga” – the master. his fans call him the king of wedding band music. To others he is simply “one of the world’s great instrumentalists” (The Guardian), a master clarinettist who can switch styles, from jazz improv to folk tunes and back, at the drop of a (hi-)hat. In the four decades since he invented wedding band music – a blend of traditional Bulgarian music and Balkan folk with contemporary styles – ivo Papasov has changed the face of world music and earned countless accolades, including a BBC World Music Award. Accompanied by his wife – the singer Maria Karafizieva – and a band honed over forty years, Papasov’s live show is the wedding reception of your dreams – an exuberant mix of melodies and improvisation that will have you dancing the night away in the Set. Skip the speeches and go straight to the fun!

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MiXtApes FroM tHe unDergrounD (ireland)

billy byrnes, John Street thursday 16 August 9pm Admission €15/€13

ONE OF THE MOST ORIGINAL GROUPS TO HIT THE IRISH JAZZ SCENE IN A LONG TIME The Irish Times

It’s no surprise that Dublin’s mixtapes From The underground have shared a stage with some of hip-hop’s greatest luminaries, including Pete rock, Ice Cube and Bonde do rolê, as well as Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and Blue Note pianist robert Glasper. Since their inception in 2006, this improvised hip-hop collective has built a strong following among a variety of music fans with its incendiary live shows. Mixtapes acts like the DJ to the MC, organically shifting the music in and out of styles and tempos, from hip-hop to dub to Afrobeat and everything in between, creating an electric atmosphere as the band and MCs Ophelia and raven flow effortlessly around each other.

It’s 25 years since accomplished tenors Fran McPhail and Phil Callery joined baritone Gerry Cullen to form The Voice Squad, a group that took the traditional Irish repertoire and gave it a fresh new a capella sound. Since then they’ve released three highly praised albums and performed all over the world, and their “hair-raising” harmonies and unique arrangements deliver songs – whether romantic, wistful or rousing – with “a marvellous combination of power and tenderness that is bound to touch your heart” (All Music Guide). After a long hiatus, The Voice Squad has finally returned to the stage, and St John’s is the perfect venue for this rare live appearance from one of Ireland’s best-loved vocal groups.

tHe voice squAD

(ireland)

HAIR-RAISING HARMONY The Irish Times

St John’s Priory, John Street Sunday 19 August 2pm Admission €15/€13

MusiC

18

DÁn

guiDewires (ireland/france) kAn (england/Scotland/ireland) AlytH MccorMAck (Scotland) Breton quArtet (france) tHeo DorgAn (ireland) o’neill foley

Dán is a unique collaboration bringing together some of the world’s most respected traditional and jazz musicians from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and england. Singer Alyth mcCormack joins musicians from guidewires, Kan and the Breton Quartet on a tour that explores the shared musical heritage of the Celtic Fringe and pushes the boundaries of traditional music.

Stopping off in Kilkenny, the fourteen-strong ensemble takes you on a musical journey inspired by traditional sea shanties and featuring poems specially written by Cork poet Theo Dorgan (dán is Irish for “poem”). From Irish gigs and Scottish stratspeys to english hornpipes and Breton gavottes, Dán celebrates the diverse cultures and shared passions of these outstanding musicians, and brings the music strand to an enthralling climax in St Canice’s.

This special project has been made possible by the support of the Arts Council Touring Award.

St canice’s cathedral Sunday 19 August 8pm Admission €22/€19

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KiLKeNNy ArtS feStiVAL ANd the Set theAtre PreSeNt

Mick FlAnnery with

(ireland)

seAMus FogArty (ireland) mick Flannery kick-started his musical career by winning two awards at the US Songwriting Competition in Nashville, a competition judged by one of his musical heroes, Tom Waits. Since then the singer-songwriter has crafted his own distinctive sound, picking up a Meteor Award for Best Irish Male along the way. Red to Blue, his third album, knocked Madonna off the top of the Irish charts earlier this year and looks set to top the platinum-selling White Lies. Two years ago, his soulful, full-throated voice and sly lyrical wit held St Canice’s spellbound, and he’s sure to do the same for the Set. MICK IS A SONGWRITER OF THE FIRST ORDER … HIS VOICE IS PAINED, GRAVELLY, AND POWERFUL. RECORDED OR LIVE, IT CARRIES THROUGH AND STOPS YOU IN YOUR TRACKS Urban Folk, New York MICK FLANNERY IS A SINGING AND SONGWRITING FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH The Irish Times

Seamus Fogarty writes songs about mountains that steal t-shirts, women who look like dinosaurs and other unlikely scenarios. his debut album God Damn You Mountain was released in April and has enjoyed glowing reviews, not least from Jim Carroll of The Irish Times, who picked him as one of the ten acts to keep an eye on in 2012. Start your surveillance here!

HOT PRESS Official media partners of WIRED

Set theatre, John Street friday 10 August 8pm Admission €25

KILKENNY

(ireland)

Cian Nugent held a packed St Canice’s rapt last year with his intricate guitar compositions, full of graceful fingerwork and subtle variation. his album Doubles is a “45-minute masterpiece” (The Irish Times) that blends his passion for everything from 1970s singersongwriters to jazz and traditional sounds into a deeply personal style, and this year he returns to Kilkenny for an intimate gig showcasing his playful, eerie sound.

Photo: Orlando FitzGerald

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20 ciAn nugent

A DEEP PASS THROUGH SOME OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY’S MOST VISIONARY MUSIC 9/10 Uncut

St John’s Priory, John Street Saturday 11 August 5pm Admission €15/€13

ONE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENT MUSIC’S FEW TRULY INSPIRED TECHNICIANS The Wire

rAcHel griMes with

(US)

kAtie kiM (ireland) Though pioneering indie chamber group rachel’s wasn’t named after pianist Rachel grimes (in fact it was named after founder Jason Noble’s Toyota Corolla), she was a key member of a group that inspired a host of alt-rock bands with its unique minimalist style. Going solo has given her the chance to showcase the strength of her compositions and the delicacy of her piano playing. her debut album Book of Leaves, inspired by the natural world of Kentucky, is spare, reflective and tranquil, “like a warm embrace from an old friend” (Pitchfork), and St Canice’s is the perfect venue to enjoy the intimate beauty of these songs.

St canice’s cathedral Saturday 11 August 8pm Admission €20/€18

Katie Kim makes slowcore, ethereal, ambient folk/pop, pairing half-whispered melodies with layers of warm, fuzzy instrumentation. These songs are “gems that urge you to listen to them over and over again” (The Irish Times).

ArcHie Bronson outFit with

(UK)

RIGHTEOUSLY BRASH The Independent

“We insist you crank the volume right up� wrote Time Out in a glowing review of the latest album by Archie Bronson Outfit. In the Set, the band will be happy to oblige. Since the release of their first album back in 2004, they’ve made a name for themselves with their unique brand of aural assault - mixing gritty rock songs with cacophonous, pulsating electropop. Albums like Durang Durang and Coconut (produced

by DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy) have won them plaudits galore, while their live gigs showcase the band’s raw energy and dark and dirty sound at its loudest, and best.

Dublin’s The Dinah Brand write songs governed by enigmatic sentiment. In thrall to The Byrds, Fairport Convention and Big Star, their latest album features “quietly literate, thoughtful songs� (Uncut) of fractured beauty.

Set theatre, John Street Sunday 12 August 8pm Admission â‚Ź20/â‚Ź18

.64*$ p .07*&4 p 5)& "354 p '"4)*0/ p 41035 #00,4 p 4&9 p $633&/5 "''"*34 .03& 7< AB=@3A </B7=<E723 =\Zg Âź! # =` T]` RSZWdS`g b] g]c` R]]` aSS V]b^`Saa Q][ acPaQ`W^bW]\a

21

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tHe DinAH BrAnD (ireland)

Kate Ellis and Guests

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Kate ellis, co-founder of Kaleidoscope Nights – the chamber music sessions that went down a storm at the festival last year – and now co-director of the Crash ensemble, returns to Kilkenny with a brand new project. Resound is a laid-back, electro-acoustic affair bringing together some of the brightest talents on the Irish arts scene. Featuring rTÉ Lyric FM composer-in-residence linda Buckley; rising star laura Sheeran; jazz maestro and world music specialist Francesco Turrisi; traditional fiddle player Adrian Hart; the inimitable John lambert (aka Chequerboard); words of wisdom from the awardwinning poet Billy Ramsell and visuals from the über-talented Jane Cassidy and Rory Tangney, resound promises a feast for the senses.

resounD

[KATE ELLIS] HAS MY UNBOUNDED ADMIRATION. SHE JUST RADIATES STAR QUALITY Steve Reich

Set theatre, John Street tuesday 14 August 9pm Admission €16/€14

new Music nigHt

featuring

ABigAil sMitH

AnA gog

replete

tHe MAnHAttAn synDroMe

truMpets oF JericHo

The ever-popular New Music Night comes to the Left Bank with another mouth-watering line-up of emerging talent, some of it a little bonkers. Multi-instrumentalist Abigail Smith “sounds like Kate Bush and Björk had a love-child with Schubert and the Cocteau Twins” (The Sunday Tribune), while Trumpets of Jericho might also be “a bit touched” (We Are Noise).

Mayo five-piece The manhattan Syndrome have been creating quite a stir of late with their dynamic live shows, while Ana gog create mini epics built on a complex palate of sounds, and Kilkenny’s Peter Lawlor (aka Replete) makes laidback grooves filled with swirling melodies and pulsating bass lines.

Kilkenny County Council’s Arts Office working in partnership to support the finest in Irish bands

Left bank, the Parade Wednesday 15 August 7.30pm Admission €12/€10

3epkAno iArlA Ó lionÁirD DER GOLEM: LIVE FILM SCORE

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(ireland)

Photo: Ross Costigan

(ireland)

The special screening of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in St Canice’s, accompanied by a live score from 3epkano and eric Sweeney, was one of the highlights of last year’s festival. This year 3epkano joins forces with iarla Ó lionáird – “one of the most dramatic voices in contemporary music” (The Guardian) – to perform the world premiere of a live score to another spine-tingling silent classic, Der Golem. Paul Wegener’s 1920 horror film is about an antique dealer who stumbles across a golem – a clay statue brought to life centuries earlier by a rabbi. The dealer tries to use the golem as a servant, with terrifying consequences…

St canice’s cathedral Wednesday 15 August 9.30pm Admission €15/€13

Ó LIONÁIRD’S REAL TRIUMPH IS HIS VOICE: AS SOFT AS A FEATHER BED AND AS SEARINGLY SHARP AS A BLADE WHEN THE MOOD CALLS The Irish Times

JApe with

(ireland)

OCEAN OF FREQUENCY IS A STELLAR ALBUM State Magazine

wArM gHost (US) “I actually can’t believe that we won,” richie egan told the crowd at the Choice Music Awards back in March, but to fans of Jape it should come as no surprise. Starting out in 2003 as a solo project for egan (bassist for The redneck Manifesto), Jape uses an innovative mix of live instruments and techno wizardry to fashion its eclectic blend of meticulously crafted lyrics and upbeat electronic rhythms. Over the years the band has evolved into one of the most exciting live acts in the country, and is sure to go down a storm in the Set. Brooklyn duo Warm ghost combines autumnal, ambient synthesizers with skittering, electronic percussion, massive melodic shifts, and singer Paul Duncan’s powerful voice to create a sound that has already garnered an MTV O Award nomination and an invitation to South by Southwest.

Set theatre, John Street friday 17 August 9.30pm Admission €23/€20

AMERICA’S LOST GENIUS RETURNS Mojo ★★★★

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PEARSON IS A ONE OF A KIND ARTIST Mark Lanegan

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JosH t peArson with

(US)

rHoB cunningHAM (ireland) billy byrnes, John Street Saturday 18 August 5pm Admission €20/€18

After the demise of his cult band, Lift to experience, Josh T Pearson spent a decade in the musical wilderness, writing songs strictly for his own consumption. But when he supported the Dirty Three on a tour of Ireland, the overwhelming response persuaded him to record again, and the result was Last of the Country Gentleman, hailed in the press as a “stone cold masterpiece” (Uncut). Live, Pearson delivers these aching, bittersweet songs in a haunting voice accompanied by acoustic guitar. he sounds, as Bat for Lashes put it, “like a doomed angel singing over a desert storm.” Welcome back.

Rhob Cunningham’s delicate acoustic songs combine deft lyricism with soaring melodies. his critically-acclaimed debut Our Little Secrets invited comparisons with Damien rice, and he has toured with artists such as Villagers and Lisa hannigan.

(US)

SEVEN TRACKS OF GREAT BEAUTY. ANOTHER TRIUMPH FOR THE POST-CLASSICAL SCENE Uncut ★★★★

“I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing” says Adam Wiltzie, formerly of Sparklehorse and founder of much-loved ‘post classical’ project Stars of the Lid. Last year Wiltzie teamed up with Berlin-based composer and pianist Dustin O’halloran to form A Winged Victory for the Sullen and the result is a “gem” (Mojo) of an album that takes ambient soundscapes in new and lush directions full of soaring strings, rich arrangements and touching motifs. As Paul Lester wrote in The Guardian, “you won’t feel sullen after this, you’ll feel victorious”.

Set theatre, John Street Saturday 18 August 8.30pm Admission €22/€19

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A wingeD victory For tHe sullen

JoNAthAN NANGLe (ireland)

26 faMiLy

song sculptures

Discover a world of sound at the heritage Council, where composer Jonathan Nangle has built three exciting ‘song sculptures’ for you to explore.

Commissioned by the Contemporary Music Centre, these sculptures generated great excitement when they were shown at the Ark last year. ‘Trip the Light Fantastic’ is an outdoor installation made with bells fitted with solar panels.

When the sun comes out, the bells start to chime! Inside, you’ll find ‘Triple, Double Pendulums’, a sculpture that creates an ever-changing pattern of music, but needs you to get it started, and ‘environmental Paving’, a fun series of stepping stones that trigger strange sounds when you step on them.

Meet the artist: hear Jonathan explain the science behind his installations at 1pm on Saturday 11 August.

Admission free

the heritage council, church Lane Saturday 11 - Sunday 19 August Mon-fri 9am-5pm Sat & Sun 12 noon-5pm free

tHe iDeAs sHop

with Sarah Webb and oisin McGann (ireland) Where do writers get their ideas? What inspires them to write in the first place, and how do they create characters so real that they practically leap off the page?

The Ideas Shop is a very special interactive event presented by writers Oisin mcgann and Sarah Webb, ideal for young readers and young writers. If you want to think creatively, then this is the show for you! The clever duo will share all their writing secrets and answer all your questions about ideas and inspiration.

solo cissokHo & seckou keitA (Senegal)

barnstorm theatre, church Lane Sunday 12 August 3pm Admission €8 dUrAtioN 60 MiNUteS. AGe GroUP 8-12 yeArS ALL PAtroNS Need A ticKet

Do you know what a griot is? Would you like to meet one, or even two? The griots are singers, poets and musicians from West Africa, and two of them are coming to Kilkenny! Solo Cissokho and his nephew, Seckou Keita, come from a family of griots in Senegal. They’re both masters of the kora – the magical 21-stringed African harp – and they’re great storytellers too, so why not come and hear all about the griots and their music, and let them take you on a journey into African song.

[SECKOU KEITA IS] A BRILLIANT LIVE PERFORMER WITH STACKS OF CHARISMA BBC Radio 3

Kilkenny ormonde hotel, ormonde Street Sunday 12 August 4.30pm free but ticketed. book online.

AGe GroUP 4 yeArS ANd UPWArdS ALL PAtroNS Need A ticKet

JoHn Boyne (ireland)

roNAN tULLy (ireland)

circo islu

John Boyne, bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Noah Barleywater Runs Away, returns to Kilkenny to talk to fellow writer Sarah Webb and read from his brand new children’s book, The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket, an enchanting tale about a little boy who can float in mid air.

27

faMiLy

in conversation with Sarah Webb

the Watergate theatre, Parliament Street Monday 13 August 3pm Admission €8

A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF CHILDREN’S THEATRE AND A VERY SPECIAL ExPERIENCE FOR A PARENT AND THEIR YOUNG CHILD Lauren O’Toole, Entertainment.ie

PÚcA PUPPetS (ireland)

tic teAc tic teAc

Photo: Margaret Lonergan

AGe GroUP 8-12. ALL PAtroNS Need A ticKet

Tic Teac Tic Teac is a playful celebration of the extraordinary journey of growth, exploration and learning that children undergo from conception to their first day at school.

Starting by inviting the children to assemble the clock-mat which the story will use to mark the passage of time, and ending with a chance for them to express a little of who they are now, this simple bilingual show offers a touching re-enactment of this exciting time in the audience’s life.

Funded by Dublin City Council and Foras na Gaeilge.

For over a century, generations of the McBride family have been touring the world with their miniature puppet circus. Five times a day, they open their traditional circus tent and invite audiences into their world to watch Circo Islu – a magical and hilarious theatre performance mixing hand-carved puppets, clowns and live music.

Take a velvet-covered seat for this emotional rollercoaster that’ll make you go “ooh” and “aah” in equal measure!

The brainchild of Irish theatre-maker Ronan Tully, Circo Islu is both a theatrical performance and a unique installation inspired by the travelling theatre companies of old. The actors are in character at all times, so watch out for the McBride family on Thursday as they install their purpose-built, hand-crafted wooden theatre on the Canal Walk and move in!

barnstorm theatre, church Lane Wednesday 15 - friday 17 August 11am & 2pm daily Admission €8

the canal Walk friday 17 - Sunday 19 August daily at 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm & 5pm Admission €8

dUrAtioN APProX. 45 MiNUteS AGe GroUP 3-6 yeArS ANd their fAMiLieS

dUrAtioN 30 MiNUteS SUitAbLe for ALL AGeS

briAN irViNe (N. ireland)

faMiLy

28 tHe iMAginAtion song MAcHine Do you have a passion for pop? Are you crazy about classical? Come and invent and perform your own songs, melodies and crazy sounds with composer and musical powerhouse Brian irvine. By the end of this wonderful workshop you’ll be surprised and delighted with what you have made with your unique voice and musical imagination. All you need to do is bring your voice, and if you happen to play an instrument you can bring that along too! All of the music you create will be recorded for you to share with your friends and family.

Brian’s music has been performed all over the world by many leading orchestras, ensembles and performers. Last year, working with the people of Carlow, he created an opera from scratch. he has written a lot of music for children including operas and songs for Welsh National Opera, Sesame Street and the roald Dahl Foundation.

barnstorm theatre, church Lane Monday 13 & tuesday 14 August 11am (6-10 years) & 2pm (11-14 years) daily Admission €8 dUrAtioN 90 MiNUteS

solAs stAgeD Let your imagination run wild after exploring the video works of Belgian artist hans Op de Beeck at the Butler Gallery. Solas Staged is open to all children aged between 5 and 12 years. See page 55 for more details.

ShANe McKeNNA (ireland)

DABBleDoo Music worksHop

Dabbledoomusic workshops are a great new way to help kids to ‘read’ and play music without having to learn notation. Presented by Shane McKenna and Louise harte, the workshops are a fun way for children of all ages and levels of musical experience to learn and play together.

Kilkenny castle Park Monday 13 - friday 17 August 11am-1pm Admission €5

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle thursday 16 August 12 noon & 2pm Admission €8

AGe GroUP 5-12 yeArS WorKShoPS tAKe PLAce oUtSide. PLeASe dreSS AccordiNGLy

dUrAtioN 60 MiNUteS AGe GroUP 6-12 yeArS

dance workshops with

Junk enseMBle (ireland) Join junk ensemble’s Jessica and Megan, who will show you how to create your own dance moves (and dance together as a group!), and perform extracts from their critically acclaimed production, The Rain Party. junk ensemble are dance artists Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy and producer richard Wakely, and they work together to create works of brave and imaginative dance theatre. The company was listed as a Sunday Times highlight in 2011 and won the Best Production Award 2011 for Bird with Boy at the Dublin Fringe Festival.

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle friday 17 August 11am & 2pm Admission €8 dUrAtioN 60 MiNUteS AGe GroUP 6-12 yeArS. LooSe cLothiNG AdViSed.

cHilDren’s crAFt worksHops castle yard tuesday 14 - thursday 16 August 2pm-4pm. 4-12 years. free. call the crafts council of ireland on 056 779 6151.

AFternoon clotHs - FABric AnD FiBre

kitcHen MAyHeM

colD potAtoes print

clAy spoon

with visual artist and textile designer Caroline Ryan Inspired by the work in the Utensil exhibition, design and recreate your own table napkins. Booking essential.

with visual artist Vicky Cody Learn the techniques of monoprint and potato printing to create a range of one-off prints inspired by kitchen utensils. Booking essential.

For further details of all workshops go to www.kilkennyarts.ie

with Aideen Lynch Create your very own miniature sculptures using a range of different materials including wool, fabric, cardboard, plastic and recycled materials. Booking essential. with Ciara O’Sullivan A drop-in workshop introducing clay techniques such as press-moulding, slip-trailing and print impressions.

No booking required!

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ELUSIVE, PLAYFUL, UPLIFTING AND HAUNTING, THE EVERORIGINAL JUNK ENSEMBLE WERE MORE THAN EQUAL TO THE TASK OF IGNITING THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL Irish Theatre Magazine

There’s a wealth of music programming throughout the week on RTÉ lyric fm.

Marty in the Morning (Mon-Fri, 7am-10am) Join Marty Whelan from 7am each weekday morning for a classic blend of music and entertainment with regular celebrity guests, news and travel updates.

For traffic calming at its best try music, music and more music with a little fun along the way!

Liz Nolan’s Classic Drive (Mon-Fri, 4pm-7pm) The perfect soundtrack to your journey home accompanied by news, traffic, business and entertainment, plus Culture File each day at 6.40pm - a daily guide to creativity in the world around us.

E: lyric@rte.ie Text: 51554 www.rte.ie/lyricfm

Niall Carroll’s Classical Daytime (Mon-Fri, 10am-2pm) For the ideal accompaniment to your day, join Niall for four hours of great music from the heart of the classical repertoire. Plus, take time out for the Coffee Concert each morning at 11.00am.

The Lyric Concert with Paul Herriott (Mon-Fri, 8pm-10pm) Full orchestral and chamber music concerts from Ireland and abroad, from baroque to modern, with great soloists and ensembles.

@RTÉlyricfm /RTÉlyricfm

96-99FM on digiTal and UPC 0165

The John Kelly Ensemble (Mon-Fri, 2pm-4pm) John Kelly is essential listening for lovers of great music. From Bach to Brian Eno, from Billie Holiday to Sigur Rós, transform your afternoons with a sonic adventure like no other.

The Blue of the Night with Carl Corcoran (Mon-Thurs) and Eamonn Lenihan (Fri –Sun), 10pm-1am Relax into the Blue of the Night’s pick of the best tunes and songs from the ancient to the contemporary.

MUSiC/pUppetRy/liteRatURe

iDeaS/MUSiC/DanCe WORKSHOpS

CRaFt/ViSUal aRt WORKSHOpS

SAtUrdAy 11

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 12 noon-5pm the heritage council, church Lane

SUNdAy 12

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 12 noon-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 26 Solo Cissokho & Seckou Keita (Age 4 yrs +) 4.30pm Kilkenny ormonde hotel, ormonde Street

26 the ideas Shop (Age 8-12 yrs) 3pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane

MoNdAy 13

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 9am-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 John Boyne (Age 8-12 yrs) 3pm the Watergate theatre, Parliament Street

28 the imagination Song Machine 28 Solas Staged (Age 6-10 yrs) 11am, (Age 11-14 yrs) 2pm (Age 5-12 yrs) 11am-1pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane Kilkenny castle Park

tUeSdAy 14

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 9am-5pm the heritage council, church Lane

28 the imagination Song Machine 28 Solas Staged (Age 6-10 yrs) 11am, (Age 11-14 yrs) 2pm (Age 5-12 yrs) 11am-1pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane Kilkenny castle Park 29 afternoon Cloths, Cold potatoes print, Kitchen Mayhem, Clay Spoon (Age 4-12 yrs) 2pm-4pm, castle yard

WedNeSdAy 15

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 9am-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 tic teac tic teac (Age 3-6 yrs + family) 11am & 2pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane

28 Solas Staged (Age 5-12 yrs) 11am-1pm Kilkenny castle Park 29 afternoon Cloths, Cold potatoes print, Kitchen Mayhem, Clay Spoon (Age 4-12 yrs) 2pm-4pm, castle yard

thUrSdAy 16

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 9am-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 tic teac tic teac (Age 3-6 yrs + family) 11am & 2pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane

28 Dabbledoo Music (Age 6-12 yrs) 12 noon & 2pm the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle

28 Solas Staged (Age 5-12 yrs) 11am-1pm Kilkenny castle Park 29 afternoon Cloths, Cold potatoes print, Kitchen Mayhem, Clay Spoon (Age 4-12 yrs) 2pm-4pm, castle yard

fridAy 17

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 9am-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 tic teac tic teac (Age 3-6 yrs + family) 11am & 2pm barnstorm theatre, church Lane 27 Circo islu (All ages), 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm & 5pm the canal Walk

29 junk ensemble (Age 6-12 yrs) 11am & 2pm the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle

28 Solas Staged (Age 5-12 yrs) 11am-1pm Kilkenny castle Park

SAtUrdAy 18

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 12 noon-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 Circo islu (All ages), 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm & 5pm the canal Walk

SUNdAy 19

26 Song Sculptures (All ages) 12 noon-5pm the heritage council, church Lane 27 Circo islu (All ages), 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm & 5pm the canal Walk

CHILDREN UNDER 12 YEARS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT AT ALL TIMES TO ALL PERFORMANCE EVENTS

faMiLy Day by Day

31

FRiDay 10

32

the cAStLe yArd

SUnDay 12

Day by Day

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

04 As you Like it 2pm

WAterGAte theAtre

06 Swimming With My Mother 3pm + post-show talk

06 Swimming With My Mother 2pm & 6pm

St cANice’S cAthedrAL

07 Joonho Park 1pm

08 La Morra 8pm

Set theAtre

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

SatURDay 11

20 rachel Grimes & Katie Kim 8pm 19 Mick flannery & Seamus fogarty 8pm

13 Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa 10pm

MOnDay 13

tUeSDay 14

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

08 eero hämeenniemi, bombay Jayashri & ensemble 8pm

09 Polina Leschenko Quartet 8pm

21 Archie bronson outfit & 34 it’s Not Just About the dinah brand 8pm Money & economics 4pm

22 resound 9pm

14 fidil & Solo cissokho 9pm PArAde toWer

other city VeNUeS

36 remembering John McGahern 6pm

05 Meet the cast of As you Like it 5.30pm

37 Liza Klaussmann & John butler 6pm

39 Gallery Goes 6pm

45 Wire Workshop NcG 10am

45 Wire Workshop NcG 11am

45 Wire Workshop NcG 10am

15 Steve cooney St John’s Priory 1pm

51 Visual Art brunch with the Artists cleere’s bar 10.30am -12 noon

05 directing Shakespeare 38 home rule in Kilkenny 39 the War of council chambers Newpark hotel 8pm independence 12 noon in Kilkenny hotel Kilkenny 8pm Seán carpio 13 the hole in the Wall 1pm

54 Áine Phillips live performance bishop’s robing room 12 noon 45 craft curator’s talk NcG 3pm 20 cian Nugent St John’s Priory 5pm

37 Anthony cronin Kilkenny ormonde hotel 1pm

7 irish youth choir the black Abbey 8pm StreetS of KiLKeNNy (the Parade, the canal Walk,

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters 03

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 hang on 12 noon & 3pm

CRAFT: UTENSIL 46 SHARON BLAKEY & ISMINI SAMANIDOU 46 STUART CAIRNS 46 CHIEN-WEI CHANG

46 46 47 47

DAVID CLARKE MAIKE DAHL DESIGNGOAT KIRSTY EAGLESFIELD

47 THEGREENEYL 47 SIMONE TEN HOMPEL 48 JOHN LAMBE 48 NEL LINSSEN

48 ANDERS LJUNGBERG 48 GEOFFREY MANN 49 GRANT McCAIG 49 HUGO MEERT

49 49 49 50

WIEBKE MEURER CATHY MILES ENYA MOORE JENNIFER SLATTERY

50 50 50 50

KAORI TATEBAYASHI BRIAN KEANEY DEBBIE WIJSKAMP ANNABET WYNDHAM

WeDneSDay 15

FRiDay 17

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

04 As you Like it 7.30pm

06 dido & Aeneas 7pm

05 Murderous Laughter 3pm

23 3epkano & 10 Le concert Spirituel iarla Ó Lionáird 9.30pm 8.30pm

42 Misha Glenny 6pm

16 ivo Papasov 9pm

23 Jape & Warm Ghost 9.30pm

11 Maarten Koningsberger & finghin collins 8.30pm

SatURDay 18

SUnDay 19

04 As you Like it 7.30

04 As you Like it 6pm

12 festival choir & orchestra 8pm

18 dán 8pm

35 the darklight circus tour 11am

34 festival closing Party!

Max Zaska’s Groove 10.30pm

25 A Winged Victory for the Sullen 8.30pm 40 elliot Perlman & Peter Murphy 6pm

43 John banville 8pm

15 Matthias Loibner the hole in the Wall 1pm

44 the Unknown country the hole in the Wall 1pm

44 elbows off the table NcG 6pm

41 Paul durcan Kilkenny ormonde hotel 7pm

22 New Music Night Left bank 7.30pm

17 Mixtapes from the Underground billy byrnes 9pm

40 Mike Scott Kilkenny ormonde hotel 7.30pm

44 our Vegetative State the hole in the Wall 1pm

coLoUr GUide theatre/dance/opera classical Music

43 eileen battersby 2pm 44 Greg baxter & claire Kilroy 6pm 35 Soft Sculpture Workshop 11am

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Day by Day

06 dido & Aeneas 8pm + post-show talk

tHURSDay 16

Music 17 the Voice Squad St John’s Priory 2pm

24 Josh t Pearson & rhob cunningham billy byrnes 5pm

Wired family NcfA & hot Potatoes film Literature craft Visual Art

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

dido & Aeneas 61 1pm & 1.45pm

VISUAL ART: AT THE STILL POINT 51 51 52 52

AIDEEN BARRY CECILY BRENNAN ANITA GROENER TRACY HANNA

53 JESSE JONES 53 NIAMH O’MALLEY 54 ÁINE PHILLIPS & VIVIENNE DICK 54 DEBORAH SMITH

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

60 festival trail 60 the three Sisters

Professor Plunger 61 12 noon & 2.30pm

61 deathwish 12 noon & 3pm 61 badabimbumband badabimbumband 61 1pm, 3.30pm & 10.30pm 1pm, 3.30pm & 5pm

BUTLER GALLERY/ ARTS OFFICE 55 BUTLER GALLERY 56 KILKENNY COUNTY COUNCIL ARTS OFFICES

butler Gallery/ Arts office open Submissions Street

OPEN SUBMISSIONS 57 57 57 57

BRIDGET FLANNERY 58 GRENNAN MILL CRAFT SCHOOL PADDY TYNAN BLACKBIRD GALLERY 58 BERNADETTE KIELY BLACKSTACK STUDIO 58 LUCY McKENNA

59 MADE IN KILKENNY 59 5 TO 6 WOMEN’S PROJECT 59 SHANKILL CASTLE 59 JASON TURNER

From the Four Courts fire in 1922 to the Wood Quay campaign in the 1970s, threats to our cultural heritage are nothing new and now, in the grip of recession, the very survival of our national cultural institutions is threatened.

Under current government proposals thirteen key organisations, including galleries, libraries, archives, museums and Culture Ireland, are under critical review and will be rationalised, amalgamated or abolished in 2012.

nCfa

34

THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE ARTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL PRESENTS

“it’s not Just ABout Money AnD econoMics”

As we enter the ‘decade of centenaries’, and the celebration of our heritage takes centre stage, historian Diarmaid Ferriter joins Senator Fiach mac Conghail to discuss the preservation of our cultural legacy in the light of current government policy.

Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish history at UCD. his books include Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland, Judging Dev and The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000. Until recently he was a member of the board of the National Library.

Senator Fiach Mac Conghail is the director of the Abbey Theatre and a member of the steering committee of the National Campaign for the Arts.

Set theatre, John Street Monday 13 August 4pm free but ticketed. book online.

eND OF FeSTiVAl PARTy

MAX ZAskA’s groove Set theatre, John Street Sunday 19 August 10.30pm Admission €15/€13

(ireland)

max Zaska grew up in 1990s Dublin, but he seems to have come from a different place and time altogether. his ‘Groove’ mixes the funky spirit of Sly and the Family Stone with the r&B/hip-hop sound of A Tribe Called Quest. Throw in some original tunes, a dash of humour, and a six-piece band comprised of some of Ireland’s best young musicians, and the result is one of the most exciting live acts around.

film 35

THE DARKLIGHT CIRCUS TOUR Darklight Film Festival has teamed up with local heroes Cartoon Saloon to present a day and evening event celebrating the best of local and national film-making talents. Whether you’re a film-maker or animator, aspiring or graduate, you can look forward to: • Film-making workshops, panel discussions, and ‘show and tell’ discussions of the ins and outs of film production.

• Local film-makers and animators alongside national and international guests • Screenings of work from Kilkenny and across Ireland, curated by Cartoon Saloon and the Darklight Festival • A very special party to round out the day with very special musical guests Tickets are available via the Festival box office.

Full programme information and a map are available at www.darklight.ie or www.kilkennyarts.ie.

Darklight Festival is Ireland’s premier festival celebrating independent, DIY and artist films.

Darklight’s mission is to nurture new talent and to create new possibilities for the imagination.

Academy-Award®-nominated Cartoon Saloon is an Irish Animation Studio based in Kilkenny. It began as an informal partnership among a group of animators brought together by Paul Young and Tomm Moore in 1999 and has since grown into a multi-award-winning animation and illustration design studio. The studio works with many diverse international clients such as Disney, BBC and the Cartoon Network.

Set Theatre, John Street Saturday 18 August 11am-5.30pm Admission €10 (day pass)

36 LitEraturE

the literature strand this year opens with two events revolving around key figures in Colm tóibín’s personal and artistic life: John McGahern and anthony Cronin.

Photo: Madeleine McGahern

reMeMBering JoHn McgAHern In 1965, John mcgahern’s career was in ruins. his second novel, The Dark, had been banned, and he was dismissed from his teaching job and forced to flee abroad. And yet, by the time he died in 2006, McGahern had long been acknowledged as “one of the greatest writers of our era” (hilary Mantel), celebrated for novels like The Barracks and Amongst Women, whose deceptively simple prose fearlessly explored the tensions between men and women, parents and children in a rural landscape undergoing rapid change. his short stories are “the literary equivalent of a hand grenade rolled across the kitchen floor” (Anne enright), and his work continues to exert a profound influence on generations of Irish writers, including Colm Tóibín, who joins Dennis Sampson, McGahern’s biographer, and Anne Fogarty, Professor of James Joyce Studies at UCD, to explore the life, work, and legacy of this extraordinary writer.

McGAHERN BRINGS US THAT TONIC GIFT OF THE BEST FICTION, THE SENSE OF TRUTH – THE SENSE OF TRANSPARENCY THAT PERMITS US TO SEE IMAGINARY LIVES MORE CLEARLY THAN WE SEE OUR OWN John Updike ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT IRISH NOVELIST SINCE SAMUEL BECKETT The Guardian

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle Saturday 11 August 6pm Admission €13/€11

AntHony cronin

(ireland)

ONE OF OUR FINEST AND MOST DEDICATED POETS Derek Mahon

WE NEED HIM. NOT A POET IN IRELAND SHOULD FEEL CONFIDENT HE IS BETTER James Simmons

Poet, novelist, critic, journalist, biographer, Anthony Cronin has been a central figure in Irish letters since his first collection of poems was published in 1958. his many books include the classic memoir Dead as Doornails, the novel The Life of Riley, hailed by the New York Times as “a comic triumph”, and The Last Modernist, widely acknowledged as the best biography of Samuel Beckett. This afternoon Cronin looks back on his life and work – from his boyhood in Wexford to his friendship with Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O’Brien – in the company of that other great enniscorthy writer, Colm Tóibín.

Kilkenny ormonde hotel ormonde Street Sunday 12 August 1pm Admission €20/€18

As a special event for Kilkenny, after the interview Cronin will be joined onstage by Dónal lunny (bouzouki), graham Henderson (keyboards) and Cora Venus lunny (violin) to premiere the musical version of his poem, ‘rMS Titanic’ with a score composed by Dónal Lunny. This promises to be a magical afternoon.

VERSIONS OF AMERICA Photo: Elizabeth Zeschin

liZA klAussMAnn JoHn Butler

(US)

(ireland)

Introduced by Cormac Kinsella

Versions of America brings together two exciting debut novelists whose work explores life on opposing coasts of the US, from insider and outsider perspectives. liza Klaussmann’s first novel is one of the publishing events of the year. Tigers in Red Weather revolves around the inhabitants of Tiger house, a glamorous east Coast retreat. Inspired by writers like F Scott Fitzgerald, the novel is a simmering tale of passion, betrayal and secret violence beneath a polished and fragile facade.

John Butler’s debut, The Tenderloin, is a “bracingly honest, entertaining and sharply well-observed” coming of age story about three Dublin twentysomethings who head to San Francisco during the dotcom boom. “The Tenderloin is a story which could only have been written now,” wrote The Irish Independent, “but whose themes, the loss of innocence, the difficulties of embarking on adult life, are universal.”

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle Monday 13 August 6pm Admission €13/€11

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In conversation with Colm Tóibin, featuring Dónal Lunny & friends

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HoMe rule in kilkenny Chaired by Catriona Crowe On 11 April 1912 the British Prime Minister, herbert Asquith, introduced the third home rule bill, designed to grant Ireland self-government within two years. At the time home rule was the overwhelming choice of most Irish nationalists, and few people could have imagined that, by 1916, the situation would have been irrevocably transformed.

Chaired by Catriona Crowe, head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland, Home Rule in Kilkenny considers the last, ill-fated attempt to bring home rule to Ireland. how significant was the bill, and what were the consequences of its failure? Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, author of The Transformation of Ireland and Judging Dev, considers the national position on home rule in 1912, while Conor mulvagh, who has recently completed a PhD on home rule, explores local viewpoints in Kilkenny.

Newpark hotel, castlecomer rd Monday 13 August 8pm Admission â&#x201A;Ź13/â&#x201A;Ź11

PROBABLY ONE OF THE TWO OR THREE BEST POETRY PRESSES IN THE WORLD Colm Tóibín

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gAllery goes

Introduced by Olivia O’Leary When he founded The Gallery Press at the age of eighteen, poet Peter Fallon could hardly have imagined how well his venture would work out. More than forty years and four hundred publications later, The Gallery Press is celebrated as a standard bearer for Irish publishing and a champion of homegrown talent, publishing work by the best established and emerging writers. For Kilkenny, Fallon will read with two of the press’s finest poets – Vona groarke and gerald Dawe – and emerging poet michelle O’Sullivan (winner of a National Poetry Award in 2010). This promises to be a special evening of readings introduced by journalist and writer Olivia O’leary O’leary.

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle tuesday 14 August 6pm Admission €13/€11

tHe wAr oF inDepenDence in kilkenny Chaired by Catriona Crowe

The decade of commemorations on which we have recently embarked has sparked renewed interest in the War of Independence. Many issues deserve to be examined afresh, not least the local particularities of a conflict that varied enormously from county to county and place to place.

hotel Kilkenny college road tuesday 14 August 8pm Admission €13/€11

Chaired by Catriona Crowe, The War of Independence in Kilkenny looks at the war in the county from all sides, from the IrA to the police, the military and civilians of all convictions and none. Professor eunan O’Halpin, author of Defending Ireland, focuses on Kilkenny casualties, while Dr eve morrison explores statements made to the Bureau of Military history (the oral history of the revolutionary period) by Kilkenny veterans and Jim maher, author of The Flying Column, talks about the Callan Flying Column, one of the most active in the county.

EPIC IS A WORD THAT ONE MUST USE CAREFULLY. BUT [THE STREET SWEEPER] IS AN EPIC, IN SCOPE AND MORAL SERIOUSNESS The Guardian

the Parade tower Kilkenny castle Wednesday 15 August 6pm Admission €13/€11

Being a writer, elliot Perlman suggests, gives you a “passport to stories all over the world.” It’s a licence that the Australian novelist has exploited to devastating effect in his new book, The Street Sweeper. Through henryk Mandelbrot, a holocaust survivor languishing in a New York hospital, Perlman tells the extraordinary story of the Sonderkommando – Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz who led a rebellion in 1944. The result is “harrowing, humane and brilliant” (The London Times).

For roddy Doyle, reading John the Revelator was “like reading for the first time”. Peter murphy’s “remarkable debut” (The Observer), about the frustrations of a provincial adolescence, was met with instant acclaim and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Fiction Award. For Kilkenny, Peter offers a sneak preview of his eagerly awaited new novel, Shall We Gather at the River.

An evening with

Mike scott In conversation with Peter Murphy (UK)

Kilkenny ormonde hotel ormonde Street Wednesday 15 August 7.30pm Admission €16/€14

“It’s a brave man who would try and say what the next Waterboys direction might be,” wrote mike Scott, in a recent online discussion. From the stadium rock of his early years to the genre-bending classic Fisherman’s Blues and An Appointment with Mr Yeats – the acclaimed stage show setting Yeats’s poems to music – Scott has never stopped evolving his sound. his latest project is Adventures of a Waterboy, a beautifully crafted account of his journey from a schoolboy in Ayrshire to Scotland’s greatest rock ‘n’ roller, and this evening he joins novelist and music journalist Peter murphy in the Ormonde to read from his writing and reflect on everything from his musical influences to his love for his Gibson Paul guitar, and why the Waterboys have had “more drummers than Spinal Tap”.

Photo: Paul McManus

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(ireland)

Photo: Graham Keogh

(Australia)

Photo: David Cook

elliot perlMAn 40 peter MurpHy Introduced by Sinéad Gleeson

(ireland)

“If there were a prize for the best reader of one’s own poems,” wrote Fran Brearton in The Guardian, Paul Durcan “would probably win it hands down.”

The last time he appeared at the festival, in 2010, he raised the roof of the Watergate with his pitch-perfect delivery. expect him to do it again this year when he returns with his new collection, Praise in Which I Live and Move and Have my Being, a typically irreverent assemblage “of sidelong glances and exuberant strangeness” (The Irish Times).

Whether ruminating on Amanda Brunker’s fiction, paying tribute to Nuala O’Faolain or talking to an Algerian barber, Durcan’s wit and compassion deftly extracts the extraordinary from the everyday and makes us see the world afresh. Come and give praise.

Photo: Mark Condren

ONE OF THE FEW GENUINELY POPULAR POETS OF RECENT DECADES The Guardian

Kilkenny ormonde hotel ormonde Street thursday 16 August 7pm Admission €16/€14

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pAul DurcAn

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The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture

MisHA glenny

(UK)

THE BALKANS: EUROPE’S OTHER FAILURE Introduced by Olivia O’Leary

On 5 April 1992, Serbian forces of the republika Srpska surrounded Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and herzegovina, and the longest siege in the history of modern warfare began. For nearly four years, the Serbian army bombarded the city with artillery, tanks, rocket launchers, mortars and sniper fire. The siege killed an estimated 12,000 civilians and wounded 56,000 more and became a focal point for international outrage. “Not since [World War II]” argued the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, “had a professional army conducted a campaign of unrelenting violence against the inhabitants of a european city.”

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the start of the siege, the distinguished journalist and historian misha glenny comes to Kilkenny to talk about Sarajevo and the war that surrounded it.

As the Central europe Correspondent, first for The Guardian and then for the BBC, Glenny chronicled the collapse of communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. A writer whose “engaging passion never clouds his objective eye” (The Sunday Times), he has won several major awards for his work, including the Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting, and his book The Balkans is regarded as the definitive history of the region. Introduced by journalist, writer and current affairs presenter Olivia O’leary, Glenny considers what caused the war, what made the conflict so bloody, and why the international community was so slow to react.

St canice’s cathedral friday 17 August 6pm Admission €18/€15.50

Photo: barney Jones

The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture was established in 2007 to honour the Kilkenny writer, historian and broadcaster whose remarkable consistency of vision and clarity of mind made him unique among essayists and whose work evinced an unsurpassed moral, political and literary integrity.

BANVILLE WRITES NOVELS OF COMPLEx PATTERNING, WITH GRACE, PRECISION AND TIMING The Guardian

(ireland)

By now, John Banville needs no introduction. The BookerPrize-winning author of The Sea is a festival favourite, and whether appearing as Benjamin Black – his crime-writing alter ego – or himself, he always puts on a show. This year, introduced by Irish Times journalist mick Heaney, he returns with a typically dazzling and accomplished new novel, Ancient Light. Alexander Cleave is an actor whose best days are firmly behind him. As he looks back on his first, unlikely love affair as a teenager in a small provincial town, darker memories begin to surface: memories of his daughter’s suicide ten years ago.

Photo: D. Banville

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle friday 17 August 8pm Admission €13/€11

READING, WRITING & REVIEWING

eileen BAttersBy In conversation with Cormac Kinsella (ireland)

Photo: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times

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JoHn BAnville Introduced by Mick Heaney

Literary correspondent of The Irish Times, eileen Battersby is “the finest fiction critic we have” (John Banville). A four-time winner of the National Arts Journalist of the Year Award, she is feted for her passion for literature and the depth and sensitivity of her reviews. her book Second Readings was the fruit of a year spent re-reading the classics, while her recent memoir Ordinary Dogs, chronicling twenty years of adventures with her beloved Bilbo and Frodo, was “one of the best love stories you’ll read this year” (Irish Independent).

Join Battersby as she reflects on her passions, both literary and canine, in the company of Cormac Kinsella.

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle Saturday 18 August 2pm Admission €13/€11

[ORDINARY DOGS IS] A WONDERFUL BOOK, CLEANLY AND HONESTLY WRITTEN, FUNNY, WISE AND VALIANT, AND ENTIRELY FREE OF SENTIMENTALITY John Banville BATTERSBY’S ACUTE OBSERVATION ILLUMINATES HER TExT Irish Independent FRIGHTENINGLY WELL READ Books Ireland

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Photo: Helen Kilroy

44 greg BAXter

(US)

clAire kilroy

(ireland)

Introduced by Edel Coffey “Only a very brave – or very foolish – aspiring novelist would first publish a memoir about trying, and failing, to write a novel” suggested The Observer, but that’s exactly what greg Baxter did in his acclaimed book A Preparation for Death. Now Baxter has made a triumphant return to fictional terrain with The Apartment, a novel tracing the wanderings of an unnamed American in a european city.

Claire Kilroy’s latest novel, The Devil I Know, is a disturbing story set against the backdrop of a brewing international debt crisis. It’s a typically bold premise from a BEAUTIFUL. MAGNIFICENT. HEART-BREAKING. GREG BAxTER “dazzlingly skilled” writer (The Mail on Sunday) whose previous novels have been IS A TRUE ORIGINAL showered with awards, including the rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

Ian Sansom [KILROY] PACKS A STUNNING WORLDLY WISDOM INTO HER BEAUTIFUL PROSE Barbara Kingsolver

Hot potAtoes

the Parade tower, Kilkenny castle Saturday 18 August 6pm Admission €13/€11

a hunger for conversation, and an appetite for new thinking about our relationship with food

Kilkenny Arts Festival has always been a festival of the senses, and this year that includes taste! Taking their cue from Utensil (see opposite), two of our curators, Gerry Godley and Angela O’Kelly, present Hot Potatoes, a series of talks exploring our complex relationship with food. From the rituals of mealtime to GM crops, leading writers, journalists and food industry personnel juggle the burning issues of our time.

elbows Off the Table traditions, rituals and mealtime memories Wednesday 15 August 6pm-7pm National Craft Gallery

The unknown Country gm and our future food Thursday 16 August 1pm-2pm The hole in the Wall, 17 high Street

Cathal garvey (bio hacker) Regina Sexton (food historian, UCC) Suzanne Campbell (journalist, Sheila maher (author, Six At The Table) Ear to the Ground) Designgoat (product designers) With trials of blight-resistant Like Proust with his madeleines, potatoes in the offing here in food and the paraphernalia we use to Ireland, GM is part of our future, but eat it exerts a powerful hold on our do we understand the impact of this subconscious. technology on our green island?

free but ticketed. book online.

Our Vegetative State food and popular culture Friday 17 August 1pm-2pm The hole in the Wall, 17 high Street Trevor White (author, The Kitchen Con) Jim Carroll (On The record, The Irish Times) Niamh Shields (blogger & author, Comfort & Spice) everyone can be a celebrity for fifteen minutes, even chefs. This session delves into the strange world where food and fame collide.

craft 45

Utensil

current approaches to tableware Curated by Angela O’Kelly

Utensil is an exhibition of European applied artists and product designers who present alternative approaches to tableware. The exhibition will feature innovative tableware and accessories with quirky aesthetics, challenging our expectations of domestic products and the rituals of eating, and fusing utility with art for the table.

National Craft Gallery, Castle Yard Saturday 11 August - Monday 29 October Exhibition opening Sat 11 August 4pm Curator Talk Sat 11 August 3pm

Festival opening hours: Sat 11 August 10am-5.30pm Sun 12 August 11am-1pm & 5pm-7pm Mon 13 - Sat 18 August 10am-5.30pm Sun 19 August 11am-5.30pm

Talks, workshops and events TALKS Angela O’Kelly will give a curator’s talk at 3pm on Saturday 11 August in the National Craft Gallery.

CRAFT WORKSHOPS IN THE NATIONAL CRAFT GALLERY Wonderful Wire and MixedMedia Utensil Workshop with applied artist Enya Moore Join applied artist Enya Moore for interactive three-dimensional wire and mixed-media drawing and miniature sculptures. Drop by at any time throughout the day.

Saturday 11 - Monday 13 August 10am-5.30pm (Sunday 11am-1pm & 5pm-7pm) Free. Suitable for all ages.

Soft Sculpture Installation Memories of a Tea Set with Kilkennybased visual artist Caroline Ryan Help create a soft sculpture installation using fabrics gathered from the home environment.

Saturday 18 August 11am-1pm Adult workshop. Free but booking essential.

Call the Crafts Council of Ireland on 056 7796151.

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Sharon Blakey and Ismini Samanidou (UK) A collaboration between ceramist and weaver, the work is made in response to a collection of spoons shut away in a drawer for more than fifty years. Transitory traces bearing witness to these utensils are explored through a combined palette of cloth, clay, colour and texture, using hand building and digital weaving processes. The resulting place settings return these forgotten spoons to the table, ascribing new value to the overlooked.

Chien-Wei Chang (Taiwan/UK) “My work explores Eastern aesthetics and cultural references by combining metal with other natural materials such as wood, bamboo or found objects. My goal is to combine artistry with storytelling in order to communicate the meanings and messages of my work to as wide an audience as possible.”

Stuart Cairns (N. Ireland) “My practice is concerned with the exploration of materiality through everyday objects, specifically objects related to the familiar experience of dining. These forms are re-imagined to investigate their narrative possibilities using a variety of materials, processes and found objects. This play between materiality and form seeks to touch the viewer’s sense of the familiar and divert it into an alternative narrative of associations.”

David Clarke (UK) David Clarke is one of Britain’s most highly innovative silversmiths. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art he has produced a wealth of covetable objects that have proven pivotal in the renaissance of contemporary British silversmithing. The aesthetic most often associated with Clarke’s work relates to the subversive nature in which he responds to the entrenched traditions of silversmithing, often taking it to surprising extremes.

Maike Dahl (Germany) “My work consists mainly of silver objects that could be functional pieces and/or personal treasure, and my aim is to bring silver back into our daily lives. My silver tableware is adaptable to the modes of modern living and focused on the ‘take-away’ generation: mobile, responsive and independent.”

Designgoat (Ireland)

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Craft

“Eating Objects was a design exploration of food, molecular gastronomy and eating experiences. I designed a series of utensils/tools that enable diners to create designed food objects using complex molecular gastronomy techniques. The idea was to bring the magic of these techniques to the table and show the diners the most exciting part of the process. It was a way to challenge the user’s preconceptions about dining and allow them to experience new ways of eating.”

Kirsty Eaglesfield (UK) Kirsty Eaglesfield’s contemporary silverware is inspired by the way the sea weathers and erodes objects, changing their form, colour and texture. She works primarily in silver and wood, often incorporating pieces of collected flotsam, and enjoys exploring the different ways each material can be worked with, textured, formed and treated to convey a sense of the sea.

TheGreenEyl (Germany) TheGreenEyl is a multidisciplinary design practice investigating the aesthetic potential of technology. The Whispering Table invites people to sit down and explore the similarities and peculiarities of different food ceremonies in a playful and entertaining way. Visitors approaching a table laid with empty dishes discover that they are telling personal stories about the symbolic meaning of food and its rituals, stories that change according to the position of the dishes. By changing table position, visitors reveal more and more stories and become part of the spectacle.

Simone ten Hompel (Germany/UK) Spoons, bowls, jars, containers: these are the stuff of our daily lives, dependable and utilitarian, and we barely notice if they also carry the ghost memories of their own pasts disguised within form and function. Simone’s work offers us a narrative in which each group and cluster becomes a chapter or paragraph that questions the intrinsic nature of a spoon or container and hints at the delicate web of personal memories linking us through and to the objects around us.

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John Lambe (Ireland) John Lambe’s work is deeply rooted in a variety of ancient craft techniques. A single piece may juxtapose metalsmithing techniques with woodworking techniques, and the skills employed are identical to those used by silversmiths in the production of tableware over the centuries. These works, vaguely reminiscent of functional silverware, form a sort of homage to this discipline. However, the emphasis on function has faded, resulting in objects of some ambiguity.

Nel Linssen (Netherlands)

For many years designer Nel Linssen used a homemade table mat and she always imagined that other people might find it a practical and attractive product too. The Tabletalk is a heat-proof table mat consisting of 16 discs, connected in such a way that the shape and size are surprisingly variable. It began production in 2001 and is now sold in renowned design, kitchen and museum stores in several countries.

Anders Ljungberg (Sweden) “I have, in my work as a silversmith, found a number of different values in everyday use. The kind of values I want to express are those that construct an inner structure of everyone’s daily life, even though the user may vary depending on class, gender, culture, age, etc. What I`m trying to describe is something that everyone is aware of, even if we don’t mention it or give it space in a time when the consumption of the thing is given a value greater than the using of it.”

Geoffrey Mann (UK) “The focus of Cross-fire was to examine the intangible characteristic of the spoken word and investigate the unseen effect of sound upon its inhabited environment.

The project is set in the context of a domestic argument.

In this case the event samples an audio excerpt from the 1999 Sam Mendes film American Beauty. The cross-fire of the argument traverses the dining table but, where previously the inanimate everyday objects such as plates, cutlery, teapot etc. were unable to express their character, the intensity of the conversation deforms their once static existence into objects of unseen familiarity.”

Geoff Mann’s piece Blown also features in the exhibition as an interactive iPad app.

Grant McCaig (UK)

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“The table is a strange geography built on layers of tradition and events: a meeting place, an office, a place to eat, or a work surface. In combining these histories strange objects emerge that will accompany us into the future, objects that we don’t yet fully understand.”

Wiebke Meurer

(Germany)

Craft

“Do you realize that the first man who carved a wheel out of stone used it as an ornament?”

Dustin Hoffman in Papillon (1973)

Hugo Meert (Belgium) Research into function, beauty and design led Hugo Meert to create an entirely personal sphere of operation which oscillates between art and design, craft and industry. While perpetuating ancestral technique and know-how, of which his mastery is remarkable, he never limits himself to technical virtuosity. In the last twenty years, this master of ‘form and irony’ has developed a famous collection of intriguing ceramics.

“The spoon is an everyday object, always found in the same spot, picked up and handled over and over again. A ritual that lasts for many generations.

The life and thoughts of the spoon’s owners merge with the object itself.

The spoon becomes a storyteller. In some of these works the spoon loses its traditional function and is reduced to a purely decorative ornament. In other pieces it is strangely deformed and acquires new qualities and potential.”

Cathy Miles (UK)

Enya Moore (Ireland)

“I illustrate the world as I see it through the medium of sculpture. I am interested in looking at the natural world and exploring the potted history of everyday objects. I ‘draw’ with wire, combining other found materials to create sculptural illustrations that capture a character, scene or imaginary place. The accessibility of my material allows me to work with many different groups - an increasingly important facet of my work.”

Enya Moore creates objects derived from kitchen utensils. Using the process of casting, she explores her adult reactions to childhood perceptions of the cooking utensils that belonged to her parents. The objects created by Moore appear as echoes of somewhat familiar utensils. Childlike and crude in their appearance, these objects share similarities with more primitive tools.

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BRIAN KEANEY/ TONFISK DESIGN

(Ireland)

Jennifer Slattery(Ireland)

Kaori Tatebayashi

Jennifer Slattery creates textile products for the home from her studio at The Malthouse Design Centre in Dublin.

Her collections feature digital printed imagery and embroidery; her product ranges comprise table linen, printed linen and embroidered Irish linen, cushions and throws.

“I use clay as a device to make fragments of time visible. The nature of fired clay incorporates both fragility and permanence and it is this which enables the material to record elusive things like memory. I trace everyday objects in clay like an old pair of shoes, a girl’s camisole or a discarded box of buttons – the sort of bits and pieces you might have owned once but forgotten all about. Through looking at my work, you are led back into those tiny, quiet recesses of your past.”

(Japan/UK)

“Throughout my career I have always been interested in trying to find different forms for the products I design. My starting point is generally the product’s functionality, however sometimes a simple combination of material elements or a production ‘constraint’ offers an idea.”

Debbie Wijskamp (Netherlands)

Dutch designer Debbie Wijskamp is inspired by everyday objects and the materials we are surrounded with. She investigates the boundaries of various materials and techniques, exploring the possibilities they offer of creating new forms of furniture and other domestic products.

Annabet Wyndham (UK) Annabet Wyndham has always loved kitchen equipment: crockery, cutlery, sieves, strainers, mixers and mincers, old and new. Her functional work uses uncomplicated shapes and construction techniques – piercing, cold forging, bending, perforation, torch-fired enamelling and wire construction – to make small, tactile utensils in silver.

AT THE STILL POINT

Visual art 51

Irish Women Artists working in Film Curated by Josephine Kelliher

Opening brunch with the artists: Saturday 11 August, 10.30-12 noon at Cleere’s Bar & Theatre, 28 Parliament Street.

Venue tour afterwards.

AIDEEN BARRY In Aideen Barry’s Possession the lead character (performed by the artist herself) is a product of the environment in which she is immersed: the Irish suburbs. She is a housewife living in the middle of an abandoned housing development from which she is incapable of fleeing. Immersed in this alienating and unhealthy domestic situation, she exists in a continuous present of routine and anxiety, reduced to an object – or even an extension – of those to whom she gives the freedom she has renounced. Exploring societal expectations of ‘the modern woman’, Possession is enigmatic, surreal and infused with dark, satirical humour.

Aideen Barry: born Cork 1979, works in Galway and on research-based residencies including NASA (Space Training USA). Barry is a lecturer in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art and Design; she works in performance, film, sculpture, lens-based media, musical composition, drawing and animation and exhibits internationally. www.aideenbarry.com

Possession (2011), 6 minutes, 30 seconds.

Single channel projection with sound.

Victorian Tea House, Bateman Quay Mon - Sun 10am-6pm

CECILY BRENNAn Cecily Brennan’s work focuses on traumas of the body and mind, exploring the ways in which humans learn to survive, to endure, and to overcome their damaged selves. In her video piece Unstrung, a woman standing in a clinical white space is assailed by successive torrents of a mysterious black liquid that knock her over every time she struggles to her feet. The work is enigmatic but, as Caoimhin MacGiolla Leith has pointed out, alludes to “the ‘lethal flood’ or ‘oceanic death’ described

by Julia Kristeva in her classic account of depression and melancholia”. Unstrung is a disturbing and powerful work.

Unstrung (2007), 2 minutes. HD Blu-ray projection.

Rothe House, 15-16 Parliament Street Mon - Sat 10.30am-6pm, Sun 12 noon-6pm

Cecily Brennan: born Galway 1955, works in Dublin and Berlin.

Brennan is a member of Aosdána who has a long history of exhibiting painting, drawing and new media work in solo projects in galleries and museums in Ireland and Europe. www.cecilybrennan.com

Visual Art

52

ANITA GROENER The premise of Somewhere Else is a fugitive place where the binary opposition of home and displacement is considered. This scenario is played out by two cell-like structures – built up of thousands of minuscule lines and dots – that mirror and move toward one another as minute figures and domestic gadgets are unleashed in the constant velocity with which the cells break down and transmute. Somewhere Else is an ongoing project that began in 2009 and appears in its fourth incarnation at the festival, set to a minimal sound piece that echoes the drawing strategies Groener employs.

Anita Groener: born The Netherlands 1958, has worked in Dublin since the 1980s. Groener is a member of Aosdána and was Head of Fine Art at Dublin Institute of Technology 2004-6, where she now is a lecturer.

Groener makes paintings, monumental site-specific wall drawings, film and animation which she exhibits extensively in Europe. www.anitagroener.com

Somewhere Else (edit 2012). 4 minutes, 51 seconds. HD projection, animated drawing with sound.

7 Parliament Street, 1st Floor (above Foodworks) Mon - Sun 10am-6pm

TRACY HANNA Tracy Hanna works primarily with video projection to create sculptural objects and environments that explore phenomenological questions. The framing of subjects is highly considered and reflects an interest in subtracting singular elements from the ‘real world’ and using them as raw material to create work that she hopes becomes a filter for sensory data, transforming perception into art.

She employs simple manipulations of materials within the physical construction of the work and also within the editing process. Her installations focus on the tactile and sensory qualities of sculpture, paying close attention to texture, scale, sound and light.

Propagation (2012), video installation, dimensions variable.

Monument Room, St Mary’s Hall Mon - Sun 10am-6pm

Tracy Hanna: born Dublin 1984, is a graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology who has established her studio base in Dublin. She has worked on residencies nationally and assembled an exemplary body of work which has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in Ireland and the UK. www.tracy-hanna.com

JESSE JONES

The Predicament of Man (2010), 3 minutes. Re-cut limited version - 16mm film and digital mixed media.

Muniments Room, Kilkenny Castle Mon - Sun 9am-5pm

53

Visual Art

Jesse Jones’ work explores the pleasures of mass entertainment and the thwarted potential of collective action, imagining alternative histories and their urgent political implications for the present. In The Predicament of Man, Jones intercuts footage of a desolate copper mine in Coober Pedy, Australia, with flash frames that reference both iconic and obscure events, creating an unsettling slippage in time that hints at an apocalyptic future.

Jesse Jones: born Dublin 1978 and based there, though she regularly makes work internationally, often collaboratively. Her films have been screened in galleries and institutions worldwide, from Istanbul to Melbourne, Bristol to Dublin City Gallery and Los Angeles to her upcoming solo exhibition in Seoul.

NIAMH O’MALLEY Island was shot on the lake island of Lough Derg, a pilgrimage destination for centuries and a site of distance and discipline. Niamh O’Malley’s video explores a kind of drifting memory as the camera tracks silently past a succession of scenes. The structure of the video matches the natural momentum of the island; an intuitive choreography of rhythm and repetition. The view is periodically obscured by black screens positioned in front of the camera; gaps that structure the discontinuity

and mark the attempt to capture a symbolic space in fragments. Spare and elegant, Island is an evocative exploration of place.

Niamh O’Malley: born Mayo 1975, works in Dublin & often on international artists’ residencies. O’Malley often deploys sculptural interventions, painting and drawing, that sit alongside her films and she has presented major works in solo exhibitions throughout Ireland and Europe.

Island (2010), 8 minutes, 13 seconds.

HD DVD projection. Commissioned by Centro Cultural Montehermoso, VitoriaGasteiz, Spain, 2010.

Rothe House 15-16 Parliament Street Mon - Sat 10.30am-6pm Sun 12 noon-6pm

Visual Art

54

ÁINE PHILLIPS & VIVIENNE DICK Redress is a video shot by Vivienne Dick of a performance by Áine Phillips, addressing the cultural unwillingness to acknowledge and compensate institutional abuse in Ireland, especially in relation to women incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries. In this video Phillips and Dick create an image of silent, restrained struggle: a woman entangled in a dress that can never fit properly. The garment forms strange sculptural silhouettes as Phillips – in between states of dress and undress – turns in slow revolutions, performing a ghostly public ritual commemorating the private traumas that are sewn into the fabric of Irish society.

Vivienne Dick: born Donegal 1950, now based in Galway after a distinguished period of activity in New York. She is a member of Aosdána and a lecturer in Film at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. Dick is an avant-garde, innovative and active film-maker screening new films internationally in major museums and institutions.

Redress (2010), 6 minutes. HD projection onto muslin.

Áine Phillips: born Dublin 1965, works in Clare. She has created video art and live performances for diverse contexts: public art commissions, street and club events and gallery exhibitions here in Ireland and internationally.

Phillips is Head of Sculpture at Burren College of Art and is a published writer of critical essays and art reviews. www.ainephillips.com Áine Phillips will make a live performance of Redress in the Bishop’s Robing Room on Saturday 11 August from 12pm to 4pm.

The Bishop’s Robing Room The Heritage Council Church Lane Mon - Fri 9am-5pm Sat & Sun 12 noon-5pm

DEBORAH SMITH Deborah Smith’s work examines those everyday moments that we often let slip by. Through projections, drawing and installations she explores aspects of the familiar, and the apparently banal, manipulating and transforming these images through a range of materials and forms of display.

Her work offers the viewer a moment of reflection, focusing our attention on the paradox of noticing the unnoticed.

Day Light (2010), 1 minute, 21 seconds. Paper shapes drawing and floor projection.

Monument Room, St Mary’s Hall Mon - Sun 10am-6pm

Deborah Smith: born Dublin 1986, is a recent graduate of Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology who has just established a studio base in Ormond Studios Dublin. She has exhibited work in notable group exhibitions at Mother’s Tankstation and Broadstone. www.deborahacsmith.wordpress.com

Butler Gallery

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BUTLER GALLERY

HANS OP DE BEECK (Belgium)

A Selection of Video Works

© Hans Op de Beeck, Sea of Tranquillity, 2010.

Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin; Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York; Galerie Ron Mandos, Rotterdam – Amsterdam

Hans Op de Beeck is a Belgian artist of international repute whose prodigious body of work includes sculpture, installation, video, photography, animated films, drawings, painting and short stories. His first solo exhibition in Ireland consists of four video works, including the much-acclaimed Sea of Tranquillity and the premiere of a brand new work. Op de Beeck’s work concentrates on our problematic relationship with time, space and each other. He shows the viewer nonexistent, but identifiable, places, moments and characters that appear to have been taken from contemporary everyday life that emphasize the tragicomic absurdity of our postmodern existence. Irrefutably fictional, constructed and staged, these video works are extremely precise and visually astonishing.

Butler Gallery, The Castle, Kilkenny Opening Saturday 11 August, 3.30-5.30pm Exhibition continues 12 August - 14 October, 10am-5.30pm daily

Butler Gallery Education, Kilkenny Arts Festival Solas Staged

Red Square Kibosh

Let your imagination run wild after exploring the video works of Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck at the Butler Gallery. Build your own imaginary set with artists Jenny and Jean, in an outdoor workshop that will incorporate construction, drawing and lots of fun!

To book call the Festival box office on 056 775 2175.

Thanks to funding from the Arts Council’s Young Ensemble Scheme, the Red Square Kibosh is back!

In collaboration with Barnstorm Theatre, the Butler Gallery is bringing together a group of young Kilkenny critics aged 16 to 20 to look at, talk about and question the events in the festival programme. This year, the critics will work together with a new adult critics group formed during the Bealtaine Festival. For more information check https://redsquarekibosh.wordpress.com or contact Bairbre-Ann Harkin at Bairbre.ann@butlergallery.com

Butler Gallery and Kilkenny Castle Park Monday 13 - Friday 17 August 11am-1pm 5 - 12 years. Cost: €5 per child

KILKENNY COUNTY COUNCIL ARTS OFFICE GALLERY

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office

56

PATRICK O’CONNOR (Ireland) (1940 - )

South African artist Patrick O’Connor is highly regarded in his native country, with work represented in eleven public collections as well as the National Gallery, Cape Town, the South African Embassy in Brussels and the Chase Manhattan Bank, New York. He also represented South Africa twice in the Sao Paulo Biennale, firstly in 1969 and again in 1975. Patrick has lived and worked in Ireland since 1978, and moved to Kilkenny in 1999.

In recent years he has exhibited in a small number of group shows and in 2005 had his first solo show in Ireland. This new exhibition, his first major show since 2005, presents all-new work in painting and drawing. Some pieces continue themes related to mythology and discovery, matters that have been a constant, steady focus since his years in South Africa.

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Gallery, 76 John Street 11 – 31 August Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm Sunday 12 & Sunday 19 August 11am-5pm Exhibition Launch Saturday 11 August 1pm

an exhibition by Patrick O’Connor is always of significance Andrew Verster, Daily News (South Africa)

ROBERT DUNNE (Ireland) Plunge

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office will also present Plunge by Kilkenny-based artist Robert Dunne. This work is mainly about growing up in a small mining village in north Kilkenny. It is about identity and the uncertainty that comes with that.

Robert’s work incorporates drawing, painting and sculpture. The starting point is always drawing. The drawing process involves layering and then taking elements away; work is exposed and layered again, and the ideas which emerge from these drawings can sometimes be developed into other media.

Robert was educated in the USA and Ireland. Since the 1990s he has been exhibiting on both sides of the Atlantic in a number of group and solo shows.

Watergate Theatre, Parliament Street 3 August - 14 September Monday - Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 2pm-6pm Sunday one hour prior to show

PADDY TYNAN

In this mainly photographic exhibition, Kilkennyborn Paddy Tynan mixes portraits with studies of the aerodynamic form of large birds such as storks and other species in Andalucia.

BRIDGET FLANNERY

57

open submissions

On a Wing and a Prayer

New and Recent Paintings These paintings have emerged from an engagement with an abstract visual language of shape, texture and colour that reflects the natural world of sea, land and sky.

The Berkeley Gallery Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny Friday 10 - Sunday 19 August 11am-6pm

The Berkeley Gallery Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny Friday 10 - Sunday 19 August 11am-6pm

BLACKBIRD GALLERY Time and Change

This year the Blackbird Gallery presents a show encapsulating the changes brought about in our landscape - both urban and rural - due to economic forces over the past decade. Featuring work by William Grace, Kathleen Holohan, Valerie Walshe and Dermot De Largy.

18 William Street, Kilkenny Saturday 11 - Sunday 19 August 11am-5.30pm

BLACKSTACK STUDIO 20 x 12

For Kilkenny Arts Festival 2012 the full-time members of Blackstack Studio, Kilkenny’s fine art print studio, use the format 20” x 12” to explore ideas for development, distil the essence of current work or evoke a simple concept in its simplest form.

42 Parliament St, Kilkenny Saturday 11 - Sunday 19 August Saturday & Sunday 12-5pm Monday - Friday 10am-4.30pm

GRENNAN MILL CRAFT SCHOOL

58

6 Exhibitions

open submissions

Grennan Mill Craft School has been associated with Kilkenny Arts Festival since 1999 and this year is delighted to host ‘6 Exhibitions’ in the converted grain lofts of the Mill and in the Mill Yard. We welcome in 2012 seven artists / crafts people: John Bently and Andi McGarry, Jackie Sheehan, Lorraine Lamothe, Fiona Heaney, Doirin Saurus and Ruairi Carroll.

Grennan Mill Craft School Mill Street, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny Friday 10 - Sunday 19 August 10am-6pm daily Exhibition opening Saturday 11 August 5.30pm

BERNADETTE KIELY The River

In a temporary exhibition space overlooking the River Nore at Mount Juliet estate, Thomastown-based artist Bernadette Kiely presents The River, featuring large paintings and charcoal drawings on canvas chronicling the seasonal life of the River Nore and its banks.

Mount Juliet Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny Friday 10 - Sunday 19 August 11am-7pm daily

LUCY MCKENNA

Electron Cloud Electron Cloud is a sculptural installation based on a recently updated scientific diagram of the atom.

It contains 100 handmade pieces, each with its own light source so it appears different at night.

St Mary’s Lane, Kilkenny Friday 10 - Sunday 19 August

5 TO 6 WOMEN’S PROJECT Tributes

MADE IN KILKENNY MADE by Hand

MADE by Hand features new work by the MADE in Kilkenny craft group, illustrating the making process.

Butler House 16 Upper Patrick Street, Kilkenny Friday 10 – Sunday 19 August, 10am-6pm

SHANKILL CASTLE Core

Core is an exhibition with four visual and three literary artists joining forces, exploring the essential parts of their work. Featuring the work of Peter Somerville-Large, Gillian Somerville-Large, Luigi Cazzaniga, Ilka Scobie, Elizabeth Cope, Reuben Cope and Phoebe Cope.

Shankill Castle, Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny Friday 10 - Friday 17 August Daily 10am-6pm (except Sunday 12: 2-6pm) Recitals & book launches: Sunday 12 August 2pm

open submissions

59

The 5 to 6 Women’s Art Project is delighted to present this year’s eclectic group exhibition in the reflective and nurturing setting of the Watergarden in Thomastown. The gallery space will be transformed into a tribute to women who have had a positive personal influence on the artists’ lives, be they family, friends, colleagues or neighbours.

The Watergarden Ladywell Street, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny 27 July - 24 August, 10am-5pm (closed Mondays)

JASON TURNER

Reaching for the Sun “Over the past three years, at the KCAT Studio, I have been working on this body of work which focuses on my love of space and astronomy. Ranging from abstract to figurative, the work plays with colour and extremes of light to convey the sense of outer space, making the unreal and surreal real and more tangible.”

Unit 12-16 Upstairs in the Arcade, High Street, Kilkenny Friday 10 - Saturday 18 August 11am-5pm

60 strEEt FestivAl trAil last year’s Festival Trail was a big success and this year it’s back, kindly sponsored

by Waterford Airport! So if you fancy sharpening your observation skills during the festival, why not gather a group of intrepid explorers to discover Kilkenny on foot?

?

Follow the clues around the centre of Kilkenny, fill in the answers and enter a draw. It’s a fun way for all ages to spend time together outdoors exploring Kilkenny’s streets, public gardens and the river walk.

friday 10 - Sunday 19 August Streets of Kilkenny free SUitAbLe for fAMiLieS

!

×

You can pick up your clues at festival venues or download our trail map from www.kilkennyarts.ie.

Complete the answers and pop your entry into our special Trail Post Box at the Festival box office.

At the end of the festival there will be a draw with special prizes for families.

If you keep your eyes peeled, you might just win!

≤

tHe tHree sisters Now in its second year, The Three Sisters is an exciting collaboration between Kilkenny Arts Festival, Éigse Carlow Arts Festival and Waterford Spraoi, celebrating the three ‘sister’ rivers of the Nore, the Suir and the Barrow. A series of workshops with enthusiastic volunteers in each town resulted in 300 fish-themed flags which are on display here during the festival for everyone to enjoy.

friday 10 - Sunday 19 August St Kieran’s Street free

fidGet feet (ireland)

HAng on

WONDER-FILLED ELEGANCE The Times

Fidget Feet is Ireland’s foremost aerial dance theatre company, renowned for spectacular shows that fuse theatre with aerial dance, music and video art. Hang On mixes breathtaking aerial dance trapeze with a live musical performance in a thrilling struggle between the sexes. Will everything be lost in the battle?

the canal Walk Saturday 11 August 12pm & 3pm free

dUrAtioN APProX. 45 MiNUteS

corK oPerA hoUSe (ireland)

DiDo & AeneAs

strEEt

61

Carthage comes to Kilkenny (by way of the Balkans) as the merry band of musicians from Dido & Aeneas take to the streets to perform music from Cork Opera house’s sexy ‘steampunk’ production of Purcell’s masterpiece. Look out for them on the Parade and Canal Walk!

thursday 16 August the canal Walk 1pm and the Parade 1.45pm free AWESOME The Irish Times

dUrAtioN APProX. 45 MiNUteS (both ShoWS)

the fANZiNi brotherS (ireland)

proFessor plunger & DeAtH wisH Gather round, gather round! The devilishly handsome Fanzini Brothers are back with not one, not two, but ... well, okay, just two brand new shows. But still! In Professor Plunger the world-famous inventor will demonstrate some of his greatest creations (including the automatic cucumber peeler and the non-stick adhesive) ... unless he forgets how to work them. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s Death Wish, an uproarious, death-defying circus show that effortlessly blends courage, skill and slapstick, with a little bit of help from the audience.

Professor Plunger Saturday 18 August the Parade 12 noon castle Park 2.30pm free

deathwish Sunday 19 August the Parade 12 noon castle Park 3pm free

BADABiMBuMBAnD (itALy) Sometimes BadaBimBumBand dress like extras from a Madness video, but the joy they bring to their music is all of their own. Led by respected Italian saxophonist riccardo Guazzini, the band’s high-voltage performances of everything from jazz improv to Shakira’s greatest hits have earned them a reputation as one of europe’s most popular street music acts. Who knows what they’ll turn up in, but you can be sure they’ll put on a show.

Saturday 18 August the Parade 1pm Market cross/St Kieran’s Street 3.30pm the Parade 10.30pm free

Sunday 19 August the Parade 1pm St Kieran’s Street 3.30pm rose Garden, Kilkenny castle 5pm free

62 fEstiVaL partnErs

golD pArtners Reidy & Foley Solicitors Cllr. Seán Ó hArgáin Newpark Medical and Dental Clinic Veolia Water

silver pArtners Ayrfield Medical Practice Bluett & O’Donoghue Boland & Co Solicitors Caulfield’s Supervalu Johns Green Medical Centre

Language xchange Ireland McDonalds Fast Food Meubles Nicholas Mosse

Poe Kiely Hogan Lanigan Solicitors PRL

The Book Centre The Wine Centre

BronZe pArtners Ann Phelan, TD B. MacEneaney Pharmacy Bank of Ireland Blaa Blaa Blaa Bróg Maker Butler Court Guesthouse Butterslip Chez Pierre Café Cleere’s Pub Cllr. Malcolm Noonan

Cllr. Pat Crowley Cllr. William Ireland Conway & Co Accountants Cullinane O’Neill Duncan Enviroclad Systems FoodWorks Gerry O’Brien Butcher Goods Happy Times Kilkenny Crafts

BITS Citroën Centre Electrocity Irish Rail

Kilkenny Road Train Lamber de Bie Le Caveau McDonalds

Lanigan’s Bar and Hostel Liam Costigan Goldsmith Moth to a Flame Mug*Shot Café Murphy Stuart Insurance Murphy’s Jewellers O’Connell’s Pharmacy Patrick M Farrell & Co. Paul’s Pennefeather Café

PwC Rafter Dempseys Re-charge Cartridges Silverwood Stone House Books The Good Earth The Gourmet Store The Hole in the Wall Tom Walsh & Partners Solicitors

supply pArtners Renault Ireland National Concert Hall Primark Super Valu

The Book Centre Topaz Walsh Motors Young Motors

gReAT PlACeS TO DRiNK 1

Left Bank (Festival Hub) 056 775 0016

2

Billy Byrnes 056 772 1783

3

4

Bollards Pub & Bridie’s Beaujolais Wine Bar 056 776 5133 056 776 1319

5

6

The Blue Bar 056 777 1888

Marble City Bar 056 776 1143

gReAT PlACeS TO STAy 8

9

10

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The Club House Hotel 056 772 1994

Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel 056 777 1888

Hotel Kilkenny 056 776 2000

Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel 056 775 0200

Langton House Hotel 056 776 5133

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13

14

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Lyrath Estate Hotel 056 776 0088

Mount Juliet Hotel 056 777 3000

Newpark Hotel 056 776 0500

Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel 056 772 3388

The Pembroke Hotel 056 778 3500

GrEat pLaCEs

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7

MAKE SURE YOU ASK YOUR HOTEL TO QUOTE YOU FOR THEIR SPECIAL FESTIVAL PACKAGE

For best rates book your accommodation at kilkennyarts.ie

gReAT PlACeS TO eAT

SPECIAL FESTIVAL MENUS AVAILABLE

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18

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Café Sol Bistro 056 776 4987

Campagne 056 777 2858

City Bar & Grill 056 777 1888

Courtyard Bar and Grill 056 777 2559

The Grapevine 056 771 2956

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23

24

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Kilkenny Design Langton House Hotel Restaurant 056 772 2118 056 776 5133

La Trattoria Italian 056 777 0907

Ristorante Rinnuccini 056 776 1575

Royal Spice 056 771 2646

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Sol Bistro Thomastown 056 775 4945

Statham’s Bar & Grill 056 778 3500

The Lady Helen Mount Juliet 056 777 3000

Yindees Downtown 056 779 4614

Zuni 056 772 3999

A Vision For Education A Focus For Pupils As part of the Heritage Council’s commitment to education, the Heritage in Schools Scheme provides a window on the world for primary school children. Last year just over 1,500 visits were made with over 116,392 children enjoying and benefitting from these visits, experiencing the cultural, natural and social heritage that is all around them.

• • • ••

Heritage in Schools Scheme: How it works The scheme is funded by the Heritage Council and administered by the INTO Details of specialists are available on www.heritageinschools.ie Contact a specialist directly to arrange and book a visit which can be a half day or a full day duration A small fee is paid by the school for the visit Teachers are always present during a visit

Heritage in Schools Administrator, Professional Development Unit, INTO. email: ljohnston@into.ie tel: 01 804 7702

40 New Heritage Specialists to join the Heritage in Schools Scheme.

The Heritage in Schools Scheme is currently in the process of finalising details on the recruitment of up to 40 new heritage specialists. The newly recruited specialists offer a variety of expertise including birds and their habitats, tapestry, work horses, bees, flowers and pollination, biodiversity, capturing heritage using film and podcasting technology, creating school gardens, Ireland in the 1950s, our built environment, marine habitats, weaving and many more.

If you have never used the scheme and would like to find out more, log on to the dedicated website www.heritageinschools.ie

Kilkenny City Map With walking trail

for Visual Art

To Newpark Hotel

14

vicar

Barnstorm Theatre

road

The Heritage Council

castlecomer

’s bridge

green

street

wolfe

18

tone

St Canice’s Cathedral

street

Gashouse Lane

irish

MacDonagh Junction

town

s place

’

20

street

st

abbey

st

butter slip

st

street william

street

in HoleWall the

street

nde friary Ormo ark Carp ormonde

streetrnian

y 10 Kilkenn Hotel e ond Orm road

to callan

Pembroke Hotel 16

28

26

5

23

street

Kil k Art enny s O Co ffic Co e

30

21

1 Left Bank

e hous Club otel H

maudlin

11 Th Set ea tre

Canal Walk

The Hub

31

4

to paulstown

the

25

parade

22

The TowParad er e

Cra Natio ft G nal alle ry

Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny Castle Muniments Room

Kilkenny Castle Park

Castle

Kilkenny Design Castle Yard

road

13

st

street

street

new

KCAT

9

8

7

walkin

To Hotel Kilkenny

19

Hibe otel H

24 15

patrick

lower

gaol

Tourist Office

ormonde

parnell

stephen’s street

17

john

St Mary’s Hall

collier

Blackbird Gallery

’s bridge

’s

street

lane

lane chapel ’s

City Hall

st

16 John Street

john

box office

kieran

ket Mar oss Cr

high

dominick street

3 st

6

St John’s Priory

lower

12-16 The Arcade

street james

to lyrath estate hotel

john

building

7 Parliament Street

ary’s St Mhedral Cat

road

12

street

Bu Ga t ler ller y

street

e Roth se Hou

2

dublin

michael

st

new

mill

lane

rose inn

black

Black Abbey

Victorian Tea House

Blackstack Studio

road

street

B By illy rne s upper

Cleere’s Pub

parliament

dean

canice

te erga Wat eatre Th

st

Butler House

27

Mount Juliet

29

to thomastown

Grennan Mill Craft School

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