Void Art Centre are excited to announce our upcoming project, Re-turning, which launches on Saturday 25 April 2026, from 6-8pm.
With spring’s arrival, we’re thinking back to our project ‘Composting for the future’ in 2024, which publicly introduced Void’s transition to a social permaculture arts organisation, thinking through composting as a means of bringing together timelines, and recognising the many hands involved in shaping Void’s past, present and future. Since ‘Composting for the future’, we have focused on ‘turning’ the compost, creating opportunities for reflection and rest, enabling the team to look back on our work and further consider our commitment to socially engaged practice and sustainable working methods. In April 2026, we will turn the soil once more, with ‘Re-turning’ – an exhibitionary project and programme of events and training.
As well as denoting the turning of soil, Re-turning is a term from Karen Barad’s essay ‘Diffracting Diffractions: Cutting Together Apart’, which suggests that: ‘Returning denotes going back to a place or a time whereas re-turning is the act of turning over and over again – rather than going in a linear direction backwards, re-turning is like the motion of earthworms as they compost soil. They burrow through soil – opening, aerating and breathing new life into organic matter. The process never ends.’
This multifaceted project will consist of contributions from PhD student Ashab Arif Ahmad who is creating a presentation of material from Orchard Gallery’s archives held at Void Art Centre – Derry’s first contemporary arts space. In addition, we will look towards the past and future, including research and output from both previous and ongoing projects. This includes contributions from artists Daniel Godínez Nivon, Stéphane V Bottéro, Joey O’Gorman, and Barbara Steveni; researchers Matthew McAlister-Colacio, Oliver Hopkinson and Oileán Galligan, Roy Nelson and Kathryn Nelson; and our series of reading groups on institutional practice ‘Closing Circles’. Our team learning will continue with practitioner Eve Olney, co-founder of Radical Institute and events will include working with Void’s archive and an experimental Town Hall Meeting, inviting our audience to contribute ideas about Void as an organisation and its position in Derry city.
The exhibition is supported by Art Council Northern Ireland.
