An exhibition of new work by ten artist - led collectives March 28th - April 19th 2009

Towards the end of 2008 IMOCA invited Murnaghan to curate the inaugural exhibition for their flagship space in Ireland. Murnaghan passed this invitation on to ten artist collectives, in the form of a question:How Do We Think (now)? It was stipulated that the answer be articulated as a non-archival, collaborative, physical artwork.

Historically, cultural movements act as an indicator of a political, socio-economic climate within a region or society. In answering the question posed, each of the groups that comprised this exhibition, did so in both a personal and expansive manner. Whilst each group carried knowledge gained through past interactions, new works were developed without reference to previous activities. Samples of the titles that were produced by the collectives are also relevant to how one might read a situation as opportunity or crisis, depending on your outlook. There Will Be Time MART [Media Art Collective] The Greatest [Pallas Contemporary Projects], An Everywhere [Jeco Sword] and Well Managed Darkness [Hope Inherent] are indicative of the kind of aspiration and motivation relevant to collective or self-organised endeavour.

At the time Murnaghan had been experimenting with 'Memes Theory', which was first introduced by Richard Dawkins in 'The Selfish Gene' (1976). Memes are said to be elements of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which get transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gesture, ritual or imitable phenomena. They are said to exist as a viral format and survive through a process of natural selection. This led to a process of considering how and why collectives form, their political structures, disciplines and abilities to maintain, collapse and reform in new hybrids".One of the potential groups contacted at this time was 'Common Place Projects' based in Dublin. Though this organisation did not fit the criteria of a collective, Murnaghan invited the Director of C.P.P. Sally Timmons to join the process as co-curator of this expanding project.

IMOCA is a recently established artist - led initiative situated in Inchicore, Dublin. The gallery space includes an artists’ residencies programme and is developing an education program in contemporary arts practice.

Irish Museum of Contemporary Art is an artist run initiative that has evolved into new forms which are visible here

Extract from Frieze Magazine,
issue 124 - June /August 2009

The interest in archival modes of presentation in contemporary art over the past few years has also recently been contested by some Dublin-based artists. ‘This Must Be The Place’ (2009), curated by Paul Murnaghan and Sally Timmons, presented works by ten artists’ collectives at the inaugural exhibition of the self-styled, artist-run Irish Museum of Contemporary Art (IMOCA). Located (just like IMMA) outside the city centre, IMOCA is housed within a leaky, disused warehouse rather than a preserved historical landmark. Participants in the show were asked to respond to a specific question – How Do We Think? – in any form other than an archive. The results were startling both in terms of scale and form. Artist collective The Good Hatchery, based in a converted hayloft in a rural area of county Offaly, built a large structure (entitled The Solution, 2009) that referenced Bernd and Hilla Becher’s canonical images of water towers and catalogued some Irish examples, while also dispensing water. Pallas Contemporary Projects presented The Greatest (2009), an electric-powered golf buggy, custom-fitted with leopard-print fur, alongside a quote (‘I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was’) from Muhammad Ali, who was apparently a previous occupant. Visitors could steer this vehicle, like a lone fairground bumper-car, around the warehouse at a fairly rapid pace and the experience of sitting in a seat supposedly once occupied by Ali added a temporal dimension to the visceral sense of spatial dislocation. By invoking a compelling historical example of self-transformation in response to the question posed by the curators, The Greatest opened up new vantage points on a familiar scene with a confidence worthy of Ali himself.

Maeve Connolly
A writer and lecturer based in Dublin. Her book, The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, Site and Screen, was published by Intellect in May 2009. The full article can be accessed at http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/dublin/

Opening night: Pallas Contemporary Projects (The Greatest) offer a free journey through the exhibition on a customised buggy ( which once performed the same service on a glof course for Mohamed Ali). Also pictured -The Solution - by The Good Hatchery and far left, an installation by Art/Not Art.

Karl Burke

Fergus Byrne

Rhona Byrne

Carol Anne Connolly

Caroline Conway

Mark Cullen

Jeremy Deadman

Mark Garry

Diane Henshaw

Artist collectives:

ART/NOT ART
PALLAS CONTEMPORARY PROJECTS
JECO SWORD
MART
MONSTER TRUCK GALLERY
MONGREL
G126
BLACKLETTER
HOPE INHERENT
THE GOOD HATCHERY

Jesse Jones

Slavek Kwi

April Linsey

Susan MacWilliam

Kate Minnock

Patrick Murphy

Seamus Nolan

Sascha Perfect

Sonia Shiel

Juliana Walters