Celebrating shared European values through art
Carrying the Songs, bringing together 280 works by artists from Ireland and the Netherlands.
To mark Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Embassy of Ireland in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Hamilton Gallery in Co. Sligo, Ireland and Pulchri Studio in The Hague, hosted an international exhibition bringing together 280 works by artists from Ireland and the Netherlands.
Carrying the Songs is inspired by the poem of the same name by Irish poet Moya Cannon (Carcanet Press, 2007). A prescient meditation on music and song as among the few things people carry with them when forced to flee their homes or leave their native country. The poem forms the artistic and emotional heart of the exhibition, inviting artists to give visual form to this universal human experience. The result has been ‘emotional, with the paintings in themselves explaining artists’ very personal journeys’, says curator Martina Hamilton.
There is hardly any Irish family which wasn’t touched by emigration, and which hasn’t its own emigrant stories
‘When I first saw some of the work online, and even more so when I saw the entirety of it in reality, I couldn’t believe the variety of it. I think my poem possibly triggered a response to people’s own experience of emigration, and hence the very wide variety. It was an absolute delight and honour to have been in the position of mediating people’s own responses to their own stories.’ said Moya.
Uniting voices and interpretations
Bringing together 280 works, Carrying the Songs marks a significant cultural exchange between the artistic communities of the Netherlands and Ireland, uniting voices and interpretations from two countries around a shared theme of emigration, memory and resilience.
More than 80 works by Dutch artists were showcased, with over 50 participating artists travelling from Ireland for the exhibition. The exhibition was featured in the Irish Independent, amongst other media outlets, and served as the backdrop for the official opening events of Ireland’s Presidency in The Hague.
Carrying the Songs
European culture and values
By showcasing Ireland’s rich cultural heritage in The Hague, the international city of Peace and Justice, the exhibition speaks to the Presidency’s values pillar by emphasising the intrinsic value of Europe’s culture and the shared values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights that make Europe a good place to live and work and underpin our competitiveness and security.
The exhibition also reflects Ireland’s Presidency commitment to strengthening the EU’s approach to equality, social inclusion, non-discrimination, and the protection of the rights of minorities by reminding us that, even in times of displacement, culture remains a powerful source of identity and belonging.
Blending old and new traditions
Successive waves of Irish emigrants have shared their traditional music and dance with their adopted communities, blending old and new traditions in an ever-evolving process of mutual exchange and cultural enrichment.
The participating artists exemplify this ongoing mutual exchange. Dutch artist Martina O’Connor emigrated from the Netherlands to Achill Island, Co. Mayo, a region with a long history emigration. ‘The Irish diaspora, not only in the Netherlands but worldwide, is immense, and especially in Achill Island we see that every winter, every Christmas, when everybody comes back and the pubs are full of people making music’, says Martina O’Connor.
The poem of Moya Cannon inspired me vastly to depict what we have now in traditions, really a centre of traditional music in Ireland, and the songs that were carried with us all over the globe.