Breaking Cover at IMMA – Past Haumea learners direct and form part of inaugural ecoart performance programme and event at the Irish Museum of Modern Art – IMMA.
As I often get notes from past Haumea learners about what the learning has empowered them to do, I’m especially thrilled with the scale, sensitivity and spread of artist Paola Catizone’s work and her considerable efforts to develop an art & ecology programme –Breaking Cover – with a focus on performance at the Irish Museum of Modern Art – IMMA in Dublin, Ireland.
So I’m delighted to share Paola’s news and invitation to their first public performance:
This year, with IMMA’s support, I was able to invite a set of fantastic speakers to share their work, experience and wisdom with many of us on zoom. Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, (Haumea/ The Hollywood Forest Story) , Lisa Fingleton (The Local Food Project/Co Kerry Artist in residence), Oana Sanziana (Active Hope Ireland), Mary Reynolds (We Are The Ark), V’cenza Cirefice (Dublin Eco feminists) and Sandra Murphy (IMMA Biodiversity Tours) and artist Celina Muldoon.
Paola Catizone
In the last three months, I have had the pleasure of working in person with a group of fifteen artists, healers and activists, (Artivists!) to craft a performance art piece that would allow us to voice the values of cooperation and interconnectedness without which our planet and our species simply will not survive.
Performance Art is in a unique position to articulate these values through image and embodied presence.
I hope you can join us on Saturday the 4th of September from 11am to 1pm in the grounds of IMMA. This event is free of charge and no booking is required.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Breaking Cover Performance group has emerged from a six-month IMMA programme of the same name, which focused on the role of art in the current climate emergency. To conclude the programme, fifteen artists will perform in the grounds of IMMA, to evoke natures’ elementals.
The pulse of Brazilian drumming will bear witness to the destruction of the Amazon Forest, our planets’ lungs and medicinal apothecary. An exploration of individuality and interconnectedness and of personified presence in the landscape, this event will honour our shared grief for the loss of so many animal and plant species, our kinfolk.
Performances
11am – 11.30am
Individual and small group performances: These performances will take place across various locations in the grounds of IMMA and the RHK including, the IMMA Courtyard, the Formal Gardens, the Meadow, the West Avenue and the Front Lawn.
11.30am – 12pm
The Procession: Called by the beating drum, performers assemble in the Courtyard and begin to walk slowly around the building towards the Formal Gardens.
12pm – 12.30pm
The Banquet: takes place in the Formal Gardens; an ecological feast for the eyes.
12.30pm – 1pm
The Die In: The procession moves towards the Meadows for the finale of this performance piece as we collectively mourn the loss of the planet’s extinct species.
I am so looking forward to this event and especially as it will mean that I will be meeting Paola and other past Haumea learners at a live event for the first time post lockdown. Congratulations Paola and to everyone involved.
Do feel free to share and invite others to the beautiful grounds of IMMA (see here for directions)
What Paola says about the Haumea Ecoversity courses she’s taken:
Paola Catizone: Visual/Performance Artist and Arts facilitator at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art). Creator of Breaking Cover, Art and Ecology Encounters Programme at IMMA
My experience of the two courses with Cathy Fitzgerald and Nikos Patedakis is one of the most enriching of my life. I attended the Ecoliteracy for Arts Professionals and The Earth Charter courses this year (2021).
The Haumea Ecoliteracy course first gave me a rich foundation in philosophical, scientific and cultural/arts practices, ideas and values.
The Haumea Earth Charter course focussed on values and paradigms, those invisible things that wield their subtle power in the shaping of our world. It was encouraging to find out how much work has been done in developing these values in the Charter.
To find out that there are so many groups and individuals working skilfully to bring about change and to restore our living world was uplifting. The wealth of resources shared by Cathy is vast and empowering. I am currently reading through some of the recommended books. The role of the arts in this crucial time of change is immense. As artists, creatives and educators we are storytellers, and stories and images are powerful tools for change. Cathy gave us a new language to share our experience of eco-related grief and gifted us with us a reservoir of practical and imaginative tools to share in our facilitation and art making. I am now more than ever aware of interconnectedness, of being part of a community of life on this planet.
Nikos’ philosophical insights and the meditative practices he brought into the sessions grounded those ideas into experience. The ecological crisis is also a crisis of the imagination and the spirit. An “inner and outer” approach to ecological change made this course unique.
The support of such a diverse and strong group was vital in bringing energy to the online sessions and in creating a sense of community, something much needed when confronting the reality of environmental collapse. The group discussions were fascinating.
Thank you Cathy and Nikos for your important work.
Paola Catizone: Creator of Breaking Cover, Art and Ecology Encounters Programme at IMMA
07/07/2021
Thanks so much Cathy for this. You may be happy to know that Thomas Duffy and Mary Hoy, both past Haumea participants, are in the performance group. We look forward to seeing you next Saturday xxx
Thank you Cathy for your support. Two other past Haumea participants are in the performance group: Mary Hoy and Thomas Duffy. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday xxx