This Summer we are pleased to announce a new collaboration between the Courthouse Arts Centre and Kunstverein Aughrim, with the commissioning of two new contemporary arts projects – a multisensory visual art exhibition by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah at Kunstverein Aughrim, and a series of circus encounters with Fadi and Juliet Zmorrod of Doulab for Circus and Dance at the Foresters’ Hall on Main Street. Both events are a major part of the visual arts strand of the revived Craic in the Granite Music & Arts Festival, taking place on Saturday 29 June at Aughrim Pavilion.
These new commissions by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Fadi and Juliet Zmorrod are produced by Kunstverein Aughrim in collaboration with the Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, and supported by Wicklow County Council Arts Festival Award Scheme and The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, as part of the Craic in the Granite Music & Arts Festival 202
Visit Kunstverein Aughrim from 3–5pm on Saturday 29 June for the Summer Preview with Bassam Issa Al-Sabah, for a chance to smell the new fragrance created specially for the exhibition “you are in heaven but suddenly everything begins to burn”.
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah works across digital animation, painting, sculpture and creating visions of resistance, transformation and queer possibility. Recent exhibitions include: Uncensored Lilac, in collaboration with Jennifer Mehigan at Silent Green, Transmediale, Berlin (2024), IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE TAKE THIS!, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin (2022), I AM ERROR, Gasworks, London (2021), and De La Warr Pavilion, Sussex (2022); Dissolving Beyond The Worm Moon, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (2019); and Illusions of Love Dyed by Sunset, The LAB Gallery, Dublin (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Queer Embodiment and Social Fabric at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2021-2022), The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (2021) and Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2020). Recent screenings include the Barbican, London (2022), Transmediale, Berlin (2021), EX-IS, South Korea (2021) and Jeu de Paume, Paris (2021). Al-Sabah's work is part of collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Arts Council of Ireland and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. In 2021 he received the Golden Fleece Award and he is currently a studio member at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
Participate in a circus workshop on Saturday 29 June at the Foresters’ Hall, Aughrim, followed by an open play session from 3:30pm at Aughrim Pavilion, facilitated by Fadi and Juliet Zmorrod of Doulab for Circus and Dance.
10am-11am
Human Sculptures
For children aged 3-6yrs accompanied by an adult. Workshop duration 60 minutes
11:30am-12:30pm
Introduction to Circus
For children aged 7-10yrs . Workshop duration 60 minutes
1pm-2:15pm
Recycled Juggling
For children aged 9-12yrs. Workshop duration 75 minutes
3:30pm-5pm
Circus Play Session
Aughrim Pavilion
Open to all
Doulab for Circus and Dance is an organisation dedicated to equal access to high quality contemporary circus and dance. Our ethos is based on our core founding values of equal rights to opportunity, inclusion, and artistic and technical excellence. Founded in 2017 in Palestine by Fadi and Juliet Zmorrod, Doulab acts as an umbrella for creating, performing, and engaging with different communities through performance, festival curation and through workshop facilitation. We are passionate about enabling all, including marginalised, communities to access and experience high quality contemporary circus and dance. Our projects crossed borders and involved numerous sectors of society in Palestine, working with local and international organisations to deliver high quality experiences in circus and dance for participants and audiences in high risk areas. Here in Ireland since 2021, Doulab has built strong relationships with communities throughout Dublin and the South East of Ireland, using social circus as a tool to engage with different parts of society, such as the refugee community, the travelling community, as well as in mainstream and special education schools.
Fadi Zmorrod was born in Jerusalem, Palestine. He discovered his passion for contemporary circus and later its crossover with movement and dance when he co-founded the Palestinian Circus School in 2006. He was also the Artistic Director of the Palestinian National Circus Festival, and as an artist is specialised in the Chinese pole, floor acrobatics, and chair balance, and has recently taken a deeper interest in the Cyr wheel. Fadi has taught in numerous capacities for over 15 years in very different locations; at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, Italy, in Oslo for the Baltic Circus Network, Cirko Vertigo, Italy, Cirkus Zonder Hander, Belgium, Ludic House, Germany, Ramallah Drama Academy, Palestine, and in tens of other dance and circus schools across Palestine. He co-founded Doulab for Circus and Dance in 2017, under which umbrella he worked on various youth projects with Walk Tanz Theater, Austria, Willy Brandt Center, Palestine and others. Fadi moved to Ireland in 2021 and has recently relocated from Dublin to Wexford, where he is the 2023/24 recipient of the South East Venue Network Bursary Award.
Juliet Zmorrod is an Irish dance artist. She runs the administration side of Doulab for Circus and Dance’s projects and circus clubs since its formation in 2017. She is also a classically trained dancer and facilitator, graduated from Northern Ballet School in England, but has transitioned since to contemporary movement practice. She has recently moved back to Ireland from Palestine, where her main focus was on teaching dance and facilitating creative movement workshops for young people and children in at-risk areas, such as refugee camps and areas under threat. She is also qualified in Rambert’s Creative Dance for Early Years programme, as well as holding a qualification in babywearing, and is currently a babywearing dance facilitator, as well as being the current Chairperson of Babywearing Ireland.
For more information please see: www.kunstverein.ie
