We are looking forward to the festive season at Void Art Centre and to welcoming in the New Year. As we approach the end of 2024, we would like to take some time to reflect on what we have done this year, and how this will inform our progress in 2025.
At the beginning of the year, the team at Void announced that the organisation would adopt a social permaculture approach to programming, internal working, governance, and funding. Social permaculture is the application of permaculture principles to social systems and organisational models, and over the past year, our work has centred on the concept’s three key principles : People Care, Earth Care and Fair Share.
To begin this process, we received training from social permaculture educator Alfred Decker, inviting peers to take part in the process alongside us. We also invited coach Dorian Braun, academic Pascal Gielen, Echo Echo Dance Company and artist Stéphane Verlet Bottéro to feed into this new strategy.
As a reflection on our work across 2024, each team member has identified a particular highlight from the year, which has a personal significance for them and their work at Void.
Cecelia Graham – Curator of Civic Engagement
Towards a Rail Renaissance for the North-West with Into the West
Into the West, a group who campaign for better rail systems in the north of Ireland – including the North West and Tyrone, joined us for a talk and discussion back in September 2024. It was important to hear about the role that grassroots activism plays in supporting our local infrastructure and, in particular, surrounding the north’s collective mobility structures. The work that both the group and their members’ do feels particularly pertinent at a time when car culture has had a significant impact on the environment, as detailed in Nyctalopia, the corresponding exhibition at Void by Adrián Balseca.
Viviana Checchia – Director
Between coaching and learning!
Choosing a highlight from this marvellous 2024 it is probably one of the hardest things I had to do … I decided to focus on Dorian Braun‘s coaching. In Jan – Feb 2024 Life and Leadership coach Dorian Braun came to visit us and worked with us to embrace our organisational transformation as a team. We were (and are) going through a big shift becoming the first Social Permacultural art organisation of Northern Ireland. Dorian accompanied this process and shared tools and methods to help us as a team. We made the embryonic steps towards a shared mission and shared value, it was a very meaningful experience for the team and for the future of Void Art Centre. Next year is going to be even more brilliant!
Mitch Conlon – Head of Sustainable Growth
Introduction to Stéphane Verlet Bottéro
As a new team taking sufficient time away from programming to reflect, discuss and develop our collective ambitions and values was incredibly enriching. This energy was quickly boosted by the arrival of artist and ecologist Stéphane Verlet Bottero who we collaborated with on a process of re-sensitisation for the organisation. Posing the question: are we insensitive to the ongoing devastation? We aimed to rediscover, through self-reflection, our ability to care for our surroundings and the living beings that make up the world around us.
Sinéad Feeney – Coordinator of Production and Dynamics
Residency with Adrián Balseca at Void
Adrián spent time in Derry this Summer researching and creating site specific pieces for his project at Void Art Centre Nyctalopia. I personally really enjoyed working on this project as it gave me an opportunity to explore different approaches to exhibition making. Archival research and site visits informed Adrián’s sculptures and film pieces, exposing the displaced collective mobility systems. We shot in interesting and challenging locations that explored the geological and material history of the North of Ireland, looking at how the automobile culture shaped our environment and the results presented a sombre reflection on these economic forces.
Tansy Cowley – Press & Marketing Coordinator
Falmouth Residential
In September Void hosted members of the MA Fine Art Online course from Falmouth University. Working in a collaborative way with the team at Falmouth to communicate the Residential to our audience and then capturing it in a meaningful and considered way, was one of my highlights. Moving from a virtual collaboration to then meeting the team in person and seeing the response to the Residential was exciting.
Shakira Nelis – Facilities Assistant
Mikhail Karikis’ Acoustics of Resistance
For me the build up to the opening night of Mikhail Karikis’ Acoustics of Resistance was my highlight. I’d only just started at Void the previous week, but even on my first day I could feel the electricity in the air as the whole team pulled together to make the show a success. Watching Sinéad and the tech guys assemble the technical side of the exhibition was educational, and seeing Tansy create a stimulating and teasing social media journey towards the opening was fascinating. On the opening night Mikhail’s ‘artist talk’ was captivating and of course the social aspect of meeting lots of new people throughout the launch is always enjoyable. I’m looking forward to the next opening on January 11th…
Neil Doherty – Volunteer
Elham Puriya Mehr: The Third Space: The Affective Atmosphere of Coffeehouses
During her time in Derry as curator-in-residence as part of our visitors programme, Elham Puriya Mehr was researching coffeehouses and their potential as learning spaces as part of her ongoing study, The Third Space: The Affective Atmosphere of Coffeehouses. She explained that coffeehouse culture, which emerged throughout Ireland in the 17th Century, was crucial in promoting social and intellectual interaction; providing an environment and atmosphere that encouraged creativity and collaboration and making these coffeehouses vital for cultural growth. Her week-long study in Derry culminated in a social gathering at one of Derry’s best known coffeehouses along the River Foyle. Elham gave a presentation on her study, then opened the floor to those in attendance for discussion. A lovely and insightful evening.
Looking towards 2025…
In January 2025, we are happy to welcome artist Deirdre O’Mahony; an artist with whom we not only share an interest for food and farming but to whom we also feel very connected because of her slow and in depth approach to research and art practice.
FARMWORK presents a selection of Deirdre O’Mahony’s artworks made over the past ten years, reflecting on her interest in the politics of landscape, rural sustainability and food security, challenging mainstream narratives around agricultural matters and policy. Please join us for the opening preview of FARMWORK on Saturday 11 January 2025 at 6pm. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.
