Early Summer Events

Winter Summer is coming, and the always vibrant cultural life in Dublin is gearing up. Our silly season of course is not happening until later in the year, with various festivals taking place concurrently, but anyone hungry for stimulating things to do in the (supposedly) warmest months of the year will be well served. I have gathered up a series of snapshots of the current and forthcoming offerings.

Dublin Dance Festival opened on Friday and will remain on the floor until 26 May. This celebration of contemporary dance in all its manifestations is now on its eighth year, fifth as an annual festival. Aside from expected stage performances, the city can look forward to groups of colourful and beautiful people spreading onto the streets. Luca Silvestrini's Protein will dance the (In)Visible Dancing Finale on Grafton Street on Sunday 20 May at 4 pm. They advise people to keep on eye out for peculiar characters on the run up to the day itself! Intriguing. One of my own favourite dance forms is classical Indian dance, but this tends to be a very rare delicacy indeed in Ireland. Thankfully, Meeting House Square in Temple Bar will be treated to a performance by Divya Kasturi on Saturday 26 May at 7pm. Both these events are free. For the rest of the programme and booking of tickets for other events you can visit the festival website.

Likewise on Friday, a new exhibition opened at the Chester Beatty Library. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter scrolls are believed to be the earliest surviving illustration of the oldest Japanese work of prose fiction. The Irish Times called the tale 'the original Japanese sci-fi story' and their review beautifully summarises the plot of this tale, well known in Japanese literature but mostly unknown to us. 

Wednesday May 16 will be Literature Night. Words On the Streets will feature 'well known Irish personalities' reading European contemporary fiction in various locations of the city centre. To the best of my perception, this has not been publicised much. I only learned about it from a small poster at the Tara Street Station. Nonetheless, after some searching, the list of readers and the readings can be found here, on the City of Literature website.

International Museum Day will take place on May 18. Again, this seems to be little publicised, or indeed little made of, but a few events such as free/reduced entries or special tours are listed here. I am pleased to see involvement by the An Post Museum, which I am told is excellent, although I haven't yet had a chance to visit myself.

Looking forward to June, Dublin Biennial Pop-Up 2012 will be an ambitious international exhibition of contemporary visual art taking place in the Point Village, 15 - 24 June. Featuring an installation by Yoko Ono, this is the inaugural year of the exhibition, which has undoubtedly been powered by the success of the Dublin Contemporary last year. We wish the best of luck to them and will eagerly await more information.

There is a lot going on in this wonderful city - get out into it!

China through the Lens of John Thomson: 1868-1872

I'm embarrassed to admit that I often forget about the Chester Beatty Library when looking at what's on in our city.  When I do remember, I nearly always want to got there immediately to see their latest exhibition, and the one starting next week is no different.  China through the Lens of John Thomson: 1868-1872 features the photos of China at a very early period of photography taken during several trips.  The exhibition will feature 50 images from his collection along with Chinese clothing and accessories from the Chester Beatty's own collection.  Sounds fascinating: I am so there.  And even better, it runs until the end of February so plenty of time to see it.

The Art Books of Henri Matisse

The new special exhibition of the Art Books of Henri Matisse at the Chester Beatty Library presents the visitor with an inspiring selection of images, which is sufficiently small to be taken in with comfort during a lunch hour, but large enough to leave the viewer sated at the end. Sated, but still desireous of another encounter with this fascinating artist. I visited the Chester Beatty on Thursday.

Rather than just simple illustrations, livres d'artistes were interpretations of the works of well known writers by well known visual artists, coveted as luxury goods among the middle class from c. 1900 onwards. The exhibition at the Chester Beatty displays works by Stéphane Mallarmé, Henry de Motherlant, Charles d'Orléans and James Joyce as seen through Matisse's eye, as well as images from Jazz, Matisse's collection of plates based on improvisations of jazz musicians. Jazz, with its deep striking colours, stands out from the rest of the images, mostly black and white, or with only the occasional touch of colour. One of the images displayed is Icarus, the figure of black on a blue background surrounded by yellow stars. I was amused to note that the claim of this being Matisse's most reproduced artwork seemed to hold true, as I later on the same day passed through Temple Bar and saw a restaurant advertise a special menu, with the words printed on an A4 poster of Icarus.

Much of Matisse's work is very sensual. The striking colours of Jazz are reminders of hot days and exotic milieus. The stylised images of the rest of the artists' books displayed here create impressions of curves, motions and desires with their simple technique of outline drawing. Female bodies feature a great deal, from the playful La Chevelure (Hair) to the sincerity of ...emportés jusqu'aux constellations...(....taken up to the heavens...). It is worth noting that the exhibition is presented on an interior of dark magenta and sky blue, which on the one hand recalls the colours of Jazz and on the other hand does justice to the lightness of the other works. Against a light background, it would have been too easy to simply pass by the etchings and linoleum cuts without paying attention to their exquisite lines.

The Art Books of Henri Matisse, 26 May - 25 September 2011, admission free.