For the Burren Annual 2019, Burren College of Art is pleased to host joint exhibitions of video installation, animation and digital prints by artists by artists Saeri Kiritani (Japan) and Dario Solman (Croatia). Both artists examine the theme of the journey. In the video work of Saeri Kiritani this characterised by the search for home or refuge in contemporary Europe. Through animation and narrative storyboards Dario Solman examines the search for meaning in art and its broader impact on contemporary culture.

The Burren Annual exhibition brings Irish and international artists working with diverse modes of practice to the Burren to engage local and visiting audiences.  Inaugurated in 2004 it foregrounds Burren College of Art as a site for discourse and artistic engagement and prioritises the rural as a hub for building local and international creative networks.

Far From Home is a video work that examines why people move to Europe to improve their lives, expand their horizons and seek new opportunities. Saeri Kiritani started this project in spring 2016, as an artist in residence at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. She interviewed 16 people who travelled to Europe from abroad, including refugees, immigrants and students. They came from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Kosovo, Palestine, Ghana, China, Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Mexico. The project considers what we call home and how in a climate of migration and uncertainty it is often unfixed, existing in the experiences of a present, often unfamiliar location, while simultaneously characterised by longing and memory.

Saeri Kiritani was born in Osaka, Japan and grew up in Kanazawa. She received the BA degree at San Francisco State University, BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, and MFA in painting/mixed media at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. She had numerous international solo and group exhibitions including: Japan Information and Cultural Center, Japan Embassy in Austria (2019), 21 Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2018), the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC (2013); Postmasters, New York (2013); Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2012); The 2nd Bosnia Biennial of Contemporary Art, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013); Art Gummi, Kanazawa, Japan (2011); Exit Art, New York (1998-2010); Croatian Association of Artists Museum, Zagreb, Croatia (2009); Inform Gallery, Kanazawa, Japan (2004); Apex Art, New York (2002) and many other. She lives and works in New York.

Website: http://kiritani.com/

The Way of the Heart is an immersive installation that consists of video animations and printed storyboards. In this project Dario Solman explores the relationship between humanity, art and nature, and examines how this three-way dynamic helps to create and define the two-dimensional medium of image-making. A central narrative is divided into 8 chapters and follows a group of inquisitive travellers/wanderers in search of an artist and a museum. The story incorporates questions about contemporary art, artists, curators and museums, as well as their relationship to the audience and wider cultural impact.  The motif of nature is consistently present in various segments of the project, some of which draw inspiration from the karst limestone landscape of the Burren.

Dario Solman was born in 1973 in Split, Croatia. He received his diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and MFA from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He was awarded the ArtsLink Fellowship in 1998 and has also participated in the P.S.1 International Studio Program, and the Woolworth Building Studio Program in New York. In 2009 he received the Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant Program and in 2013 was a recipient of the funding by Culture Programme of the European Union from MGLC Ljubljana. Solman has exhibited internationally at numerous solo and group exhibitions including Listening to New Voices, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2002); Common Destination, The Drawing Center, New York (2007); Queens International 4, Queens Museum of Art, New York (2009); A Part of No-Part: Parallelisms Between Then and Now, The Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2010); the Biennial Project D-0 ARK Underground in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013); Interruption: 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2013); Contour: 6th Biennial of Moving Image; Mechelen, Belgium (2013), Science Fiction: New Death at Fact in Liverpool, UK (2014), Architecture In Contemporary Art, Galerija Umjetnina, Split (2017). He lives and works in New York.

Website: http://filmlog.org/

Link to Irish Times listing. 

CONTACT INFORMATION

For general enquires: Lisa Newman at +353 (0)65 7077200 or  lisa@burrencollege.ie 

The Burren Annual 2019 is kindly supported by the Arts Office, Clare County Council