Ultra-red, Archiving the Debt

In February 2003, Los Angeles-based sound artists Ultra-red began a year-long project in the Ballymun area of Dublin, commissioned by Breaking Ground, the Per Cent for Art programme of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd. EntitledThe Debt, their project was a series of collective reflections that brought together residents from the public housing communities of Ballymun and Pico Aliso in East Los Angeles.The purpose of these encounters was to compare experiences of regeneration in social housing.

Fifteen years on from Ulta-red’s first encounters in Ballymun we might ask:
What is the legacy of social housing in Ireland?

Set up as a listening room in the Goethe-Institut’s Return Gallery, Archiving The Debt focuses on a specific exchange of experiences, ideas and questions that occurred at a time when large-scale public housing was in under intense discussion in Dublin. Visitors can access recordings made duringThe Debt: resident meetings, conversations with city officials, radio broadcasts, performances and electro acoustic soundscapes of Ballymun.

Presented by the Goethe-Institut Irland in collaboration with the National College of Art & Design. Supporting structures made by Andreas Kindler von Knobloch. Situated under Liam Gillick’s Denominator Platform, 2018.

ArchivingThe Debt is part of Common Denominator: Art and the Contemporary World at the Goethe-Institut, a two-year programme in the Return Gallery. Through exhibitions, seminars, discussions and more, it interrogates what it means now to speak of political solidarity, civic standards or even aesthetic values.

Art in the Contemporary World is a taught Masters programme at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, focusing on contemporary practices and their cultural, political, social and historical contexts. ACW is led by Francis Halsall, Declan Long and Sarah Pierce.

Exhibition runs from 7 February through 15 April 2019.

Gallery hours:
Monday–Thursday 10am to 9pm
Friday 10am to 5.30pm
Saturday 10am to 1:30pm
Closed Bank Holiday weekends.

Contact
Heidrun Rottke Goethe-Institut Irland
+353 (01) 680 1100 heidrun.rottke@ goethe.de

Return Gallery Goethe-Institut Irland
37 Merrion Square East
Dublin 2

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