Disappearing Wall at Catalyst Arts

September - October 2020

Disappearing Wall is a Goethe-Institut London initiated, cross European project, made possible by Urban Scale Interventions (Northern Ireland) in Belfast and supported through engagement projects by Catalyst Arts.

During 2020 the Goethe-Institut will initiate interactive installations in public space celebrating Europe’s diversity of languages and ideas. Devised by Maria Jablonina with architect and engineer Werner Sobek, a large frame will hold 6000 blocks inscribed with collected quotes from cultural figures from across Europe. From August 2020 ‘Disappearing Wall’ will be on view in; Antwerp, Barcelona, Belfast, Brussels, Gdansk, The Hague, Madrid, Milan, Namur, Nicosia, Poznan, Segovia, Thessaloniki, Turin, Vilnius and Warsaw. 

‘Disappearing Wall | Belfast’ can be visited from 21st October til 11th November at the Titanic Slipway.

This programme of workshops and engagement mirrors the projects aims by celebrating the diversity of Belfast through stories, shared experiences and history.

During September and October 2020, Catalyst Arts will develop and present a series of engagement project with artists and musicians from Belfast, exploring a re-mapping of the city beyond geography and inviting participants to share lived experience of Belfast within the gallery. Our reach across the four quarters of the city explored the Irish language through arts and craft with Aoife O'Reilly, tales of lived experience through the medium of bingo in North Belfast with Janie Doherty, how we hear with our bodies with John D'Arcy and HIVE choir and the intimate relationship between foraging, fermentation and South Belfast's Queer history. By working within our community we now through this platform have the possibility to reach out to our European Neighbours though a common language and ideas.

Catalyst Arts would like to thank the Goethe Institut London for instigating the project and Urban Scale Interventions for actualising the project in Belfast. We would also like to extend our thanks to Trevor Wilson and Fionna McDonnell as well as all the participants that took part in the workshops. We would especially like to thank the women of New Lodge; Elsie Quinn, Geraldine McCoy, Bridie ONeill, Rita ONeill, Yvonne Mc Cullagh, Lily Kavanagh, Margaret Valente. 

Aoife O’Reilly, ‘Ealaín means Art’ , 19th September 2020

A full-day intensive Irish language workshop, designed for Bunrang (beginner) level. This workshop will explore a less conventional, more artistic approach to language learning to create an engaging, relaxed environment, ideal for an initial introduction to the Irish language. As a small group of no more than fifteen people, the aim of the workshop is to learn cúpla focal (a few words) through enjoyable arts and crafts activities, as well as through engagement with Traditional music and song. 

This workshop took place at Catalyst Arts from 11-4 on Saturday 19th September.

AOIFE O’REILLY is a musician, facilitator and passionate Gaeilgeoir based in Belfast. With a passion for Irish culture, some of her previous work has explored the effects of Northern Ireland’s troubled history on today’s engagement with the Irish language as well as Traditional music. O’Reilly is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast with a first-class honours degree in Music and Audio-Production 

Janie Doherty , ‘Tales of Embodiment’, presentation of work at Catalyst Arts on 1st October 2020

 “Which words do we choose when talking about memories and what is important to include or leave out?”

 Tales of embodiment, engaged a group of women from New Lodge Estate. These women have been brought together through engagement with documentarian Alessandra Celesia. The workshops explored the narrative of the body and through the sessions, led by Doherty, they unravelled the stories that matter most. An exercise in sharing and wearing our vulnerability as a strength, the celebration of the working class heroes of our city. 

A number of workshops in the New Lodge gathered stories, using this as a device in connecting people, to sit together and tune into the poetry of everyday life. Doherty uses tales as a performative tool and is interested in how Northern Irish culture has a shared sense of identity in place and the body sifting through and collating in a work in progress presentation on 1st October in Catalyst Arts gallery. 

JANIE DOHERTY is a freelance dance artist who is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Doherty enjoys moving in a poetic fashion in the places that you don't expect: supermarkets, post-offices and bakeries. She is fascinated by working-class choreography and the cultural joke with the jab that is specific to a place. Doherty believes that our softness is our strength. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in Dance, Doherty became a full-time ensemble member of Echo Echo Dance Theatre company in Derry. During this time she developed, performed and co-created performances to go on tour with the company including Without by Rosemary Lee (2013) and In Tall Grass by Alessandra Celesia (2016). Doherty has won numerous awards from the Arts Council, Creative industries and Acorn Legacy to develop her work and travel to Germany, New York and Massachusetts. Doherty is currently working developing her own work Politics of Comfort, a live multi-media performance inspired by the bun culture of Northern Ireland and working with Oona Doherty on her new show Lady Magma. 

John D’Arcy, ‘Listen to My Ears’, 3rd October 2020

“Interested in your ears?  Thinking about your hearing? Enjoy telling stories or using your voice?”

 ‘Listen to My Ears’  is an arts and music workshop presented by Dr. John D’Arcy at Catalyst Arts.

The workshop invited participants with all forms of ears - including hearing aid and cochlear implant users -  to explore their own hearing through a series of listening and sound-making activities. Led by Dr John D’Arcy, the workshop included some simple activities that invited the participant to reflect on and share your personal hearing experiences in a safe and welcoming environment. 

No singing, musical or arts experience or training were required to get involved.

DR JOHN D’ARCY is based at Queen’s University Belfast in the Sonic Arts Research Centre.  His recent project Do You Hear What I Hear? Is an interactive experience that explores the diversity of hearing using a mobile phone and headphones.

Phillip McCrilly, ‘Jaunt’, 6th October 2020

Engaging with Belfast’s hidden queer history, Phillip McCrilly will deliver a fermentation & foraging workshop taking the form of a collective bicycle jaunt to a number of noted ‘cruising’ spots in South Belfast.

Meeting at 'Fruit Shop' (438 Ormeau Road, Belfast) on the 6th October, participants would be given a brief overview of the project as well as a map and package of wild seeds. From there, the audience will travel on mass on an alternative mapping of South Belfast, encouraged to distribute their seeds en route. At each spot, participants will be given a queer alternative reading of each of the locations, as well as an opportunity to ramble.

PHILLIP MCCRILLY is a Belfast-based artist, curator and chef. Interested in the transgressive and interdisciplinary possibilities of food, hospitality and education, his work explores the idea of threshold in often collaborative forms. Combining somatic learning with haptic processes of making, food is frequently used as a conduit for the transference of knowledge and skills.

Recent food-based projects include Spiral Jetty Sauerkraut at CCA Derry~Londonderry, Dance Food at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and Kombucha Bar at Catalyst Arts, Belfast. As a Co-Director at Catalyst Arts, Belfast (2013-15), and whilst at Golden Thread Gallery (2015-16) he curated a number of projects with artists such as Ericka Beckman, Amanda Beech, Duncan Campbell, Vivienne Dick, Simon Fujiwara, and Seamus Harahan. In 2015 he worked as part ‘Adventure Capital’ Sean Lynch’s project at the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale - the 56th International Art Exhibition. He was the recipient of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Career Enhancement Scheme for Curatorial Practice (2016-17), receiving mentorship from the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

PHILLIP is also a member of FRUIT SHOP, a collective of Belfast-based artists considering the city’s ecosystem as a fertile site for research. Working within a suburban residential café, they merge food production and grassroots growing initiatives with local food histories.