New international collaboration exhibition launches at Hugh Lane Gallery

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland has today launched a new exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Hiwa K: Do you remember what you are burning?

The exhibition, which is the gallery’s first international collaboration since the easing of restrictions, is comprised of films, installations, and performances.

Hiwa K’s work examines themes of migration, identity and collective ways of being.

“Concentrating on the conditions one can experience when on the margin of society, the artist frequently refers to the geopolitical ties between his native Kurdistan and the many locations in Europe that he has called home,” says Dublin City Council.

In 1996, at age 21, the Iraqi-Kurdish artist Hiwa K fled Kurdistan on foot, embarking on a journey to Europe that lasted five months and twenty days.

He lived in Germany for almost two decades and in 2020 he moved back to his birthplace of Sulaymaniyah, in Kurdistan.

Do you remember what you are burning? is Hiwa K’s first solo exhibition in Ireland, bringing together works created over the past ten years.

“Hiwa K’s intense dedication to current concerns is what makes him one of the most exciting artists working today.

“We are delighted to welcome Hiwa K to the Hugh Lane Gallery,” said Barbara Dawson, Director of the Gallery.

Hiwa K’s work is a combination of autobiographical stories in which politics and history form the backdrop to performative interventions.

“The works that I do mostly point with the pinkie; they leave space for the audience to produce their own readings,” said the artist.

The exhibition opens to the public on October 7^th and continues until February 13^th 2022.

A supporting programme of talks and lectures will be announced soon.

“There is an insistent energy around Hiwa K’s practice, that is first felt emotionally and then intellectually,” said Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibition at the Gallery.