Sculpture Dublin awards land art commission for St. Anne’s Park

The Dublin City Council initiative, Sculpture Dublin, has announced that Iván Argote (pictured above) is the winner of the St. Anne’s Park land art commission.

For this commission, Sculpture Dublin invited artists to propose a response to the site that is ambitious in scope and imagination, and will inspire a new form of public engagement with the landscape in and around St. Anne’s Park.

Argote has proposed a large-scale earthwork for the site at the south-eastern corner of the park, that looks out over the Dublin Bay Biosphere – an area recognised for its diversity of bird and plant life.

The proposed artwork is inspired by ancient monuments and architecture and the park’s historic garden follies.

While the other 5 new sculptures that make up the Sculpture Dublin programme were commissioned on the basis of an open competition, given the specialist nature of land art, a limited one-stage competition was required for the St Anne’s Park commission.

The selection process involved the nomination of 25 artists by an international panel of art experts and the short-listing of 5 artists by a Nomination Panel.

From the shortlist, the successful proposal was chosen by a Selection Panel, comprising representatives from DCC Parks and Landscape Services, the City Arts Office, the Hugh Lane Gallery, public and local community representatives and external art experts.

Commissioned artist Iván Argote said: “I am delighted to have been awarded the Sculpture Dublin land art commission for St. Anne’s Park.

“It is a great honour to be invited to create a permanent artwork for this historic parkland, that will be embedded in a beautiful and dramatic site overlooking Dublin Bay.”

Sculpture Dublin Programme Director Karen Downey said:

“We are very grateful to the short-listed artists and the panel of art experts for their thoughtful consideration of the commission brief.

“It was a challenging competition but we are thrilled and privileged to be working with Iván Argote, an internationally acclaimed artist, on the realisation of his unique and compelling vision for this site.”

Iván Argote is a Colombian-born, Paris-based artist and film director.

Through his sculptures, installations, films and interventions, he questions our intimate relationship with other people, institutions, power and belief systems.

‘A Point Of View’, installation, Desert X 2019
Photo © Lance Gerber
Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Perrotin

In his interventions on monuments and large-scale ephemeral and permanent public artworks – such as his upcoming commissions for Sciences Po’s (Paris Institute of Political Studies) and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle’s (Paris 3) new campuses, which will be unveiled later this year, or his installations for Desert X 2019 and in Douala, Cameroon – Argote proposes new symbolic uses, warmer and more inclusive, of public space.

Argote studied graphic design, photography and new media at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and holds an MFA from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Art (ENSBA) in Paris. Solo exhibitions include: ‘Juntos Together’, ASU – Arizona State University Art Museum, USA (2019); ‘Radical Tenderness’, MALBA, Buenos Aires (2018); ‘Deep Affection’, Perrotin, Paris (2018); ‘Somos Tiernos’, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico (2017); ‘Somos’, Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo (2017); ‘La Venganza del Amor’, Perrotin, New York (2017); and ‘Si?rvete de mi, si?rveme de ti’, Proyecto Amil, Lima (2016) .

His work is held in the public collections of the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; ASU Art Museum, Phoenix; and CNAP (Centre National des Arts Plastiques), Paris; among others.

Upcoming projects include solo shows at Dortmunder Kunstverein, Germany and Galerie Perrotin, New York, and a residency followed by a solo show at Artpace, San Antonio, USA.