MCAC is thrilled to host a contextual retrospective exhibition for the internationally known artists the Guerrilla Girls. The MCAC exhibition will present posters and photographs that document the history of the Guerrilla Girls while also launching an all-Ireland Guerrilla Girl Research Tour. In April, the Guerrilla Girls will present ‘gigs’ in Belfast, Portadown, Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny. The tour is a research project that will inform MCAC-instigated new work which will then be shown at MCAC in October 2009 and the co-commissioning venues in 2010.
Formed in 1985, the Guerrilla Girls explore such taboo subjects as feminism and fashion, attempting to achieve equality of the sexes and “races” in art, politics, film, and popular culture, and so calling themselves the ‘Conscience of the Art World’. They wear gorilla masks in public, to conceal their identities, and place the focus on issues rather than personalities, and work collectively and anonymously, to produce posters, films, billboards, public actions, books and other projects.
The Guerrilla Girls Research and New Work project is a collaboration between leading visual arts organisations and in partnership with many others. The Commissioning organisations are Millennium Court Arts Centre, Glucksman Gallery, Cork, the University of Ulster, Belfast and the National College of Art & Design, Dublin. The overall project aims to be a lens through which power and powerlessness is identified, gender examined and issues about women in contemporary society are discussed.
Commissioner and organiser Megan Johnston, Arts Director at MCAC, explains that the project ‘is historic and significant in relation to the museum and galleries of Ireland-both North and South. These seminal artists have something very important to teach all of us in the visual arts sector, as they comment on the status not only of artists who are female but also on gender, race, nationality and religion in contemporary society. I encourage anyone to come and participate in the live gigs and experience this once in a lifetime opportunity to see art history in the making’.
The Guerrilla Girls exhibition and tour highlights MCAC’s commitment to the delivery of a critically acclaimed artistic programme with the aim of creating a vibrant and unique context in which to cultivate and enhance the cultural environment of the community.
All-Ireland Guerrilla Girls Tour – A Series of Performance Gigs:
31 March Belfast, University of Ulster, Conor Lecture Theatre, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
31 March Portadown, MCAC, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
1 April Glucksman Gallery, Cork
2 April National College of Art & Design, Dublin
3 April Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle
