EVA International Guest Programme • Ormston House is delighted to host EVA International’s guest programme The Gleaners Society curated by Sebastian Cichocki. Taking place across seventeen sites in Limerick City, Ormston House serves as “an entry portal to The Gleaners Society” – Sebastian Cichocki.

Curated by Sebastian Cichocki, the Guest Programme of the 40th EVA International takes its thematic basis on the idea and practice of gleaning – a term that traditionally refers to the act of collecting leftover crops following a harvest. The Gleaners Society extends this reference in a multiple of ways, alternately serving as an artistic subject, a political metaphor, and a curatorial methodology to explore and propose art’s relationship to society. Featuring over 45 presentations by Irish and international artists and collectives, The Gleaners Society will unfold across a set of uniquely diverse venues in Limerick city (civic arts institutions, a primary school, a Cathedral, and a vegetarian cafe, among others).

“Convening the programme, I focused mainly on practices of artists engaged in generating social change and focused on daily chores, often unheroic and unspectacular and not always resulting in a tangible work of art. EVA International is a unique exhibition environment where such experiments are possible” – Sebastian Cichocki

Artists exhibiting at Ormston House are John Carson, Jeamin Cha, Olga Micińska with Mathild Clerc-Verhoeven, Léann Herlihy, Janet Mullarney, Teresa Murak, Rory Pilgrim, Slavs and Tatars & Leah Feldman, and Thomond Primary School Gardening Club in collaboration with Deirdre O’Mahony and Hometree.

Sebastian Cichocki is the Chief Curator and Head of Research at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN), where he was a member of curatorial teams of Who Will Write the History of Tears: Artists on Women’s Rights (2021), Primary Forms (2021-ongoing), The Penumbral Age: Art in the Times of Planetary Crisis (2020), Never Again: Art against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st centuries (2019), Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times (2016) and other exhibition and research programmes. Selected exhibitions by Cichocki include also The Postartistic Congress (Sokołowsko, The Konteksty Festival 2021, with Marianna Dobkowska), the Polish pavilions at the 52nd (Monika Sosnowska 1:1) and 54th Biennale of Art in Venice (Yael Bartana … and Europe will Be Stunned, with Galit Eilat), The Bródno Biennale (2018, convened with Paweł Althamer and Goshka Macuga), Rainbow in the Dark: On the Joy and Torment of Faith, Konstmuseum Malmö (2015, with Galit Eilat). Sebastian Cichocki is a curator at The Forum for Future of Culture at the Powszechny Theatre, Warsaw, a platform for feminist, ecological and antifascist activism and culture, and The Consortium for Postartistic Practices / The Office for Postartistic Services – networks of art workers contributing to the pro-democratic and anti-authoritarian political struggles. Sebastian Cichocki is also a member of The Sunflower – Solidarity Community Center in Warsaw, an aid, culture and counter-propaganda initiative for those who suffered from Russia’s invasion on Ukraine.

Sebastian Cichocki has published extensively and lectured at various venues, including Dhaka Art Summit, the Kochi Biennale, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Kunsthalle Wien, Gwangju Biennale, The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, The University of Malta. He is a 2018 fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership, MoMA, New York.

EVA International is Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art. EVA leads in the commissioning and curating of contemporary art by Irish and international artists, culminating in a programme of artistic encounters, exhibitions, and education projects, that takes place every two years across venues in Limerick city and beyond. EVA was founded by artists in 1977 and it remains one of the longest running visual arts organisations in Ireland, with a history of working with some of the world’s most influential curators, including: Merve Elveren (2020/2021) Inti Guerrero (2018), Koyo Kouoh (2016), Bassam El Baroni (2014), Annie Fletcher (2012), Hou Hanru (2008), Katerina Gregos (2006), Dan Cameron (2005), Zdenka Badovinac (2004), Salah M. Hassan (2001), Rosa Martínez (2000), Jan Hoet (1994), Gloria Moure (1993), and Saskia Bos (1990).

For more information on EVA International and access to digital visitor’s guide, please visit here.