The old terminal at Cork International Airport lay abandoned after its shiny new replacement was built – until a visiting artist saw its potential, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL

DRAPED ACROSS the front of the old terminal at Cork International Airport is a tattered banner welcoming visitors to Cork during its tenure as European Capital of Culture. The year is 2005, and the terminal building, although hopelessly overcrowded, is still in use. Since then the building has been replaced by a modern glass-fronted terminal, built at a time when we thought visitors to Ireland would keep on coming.

Much like the old terminal, Cork’s tenure as the Capital of Culture is a distant memory, with Cork Opera House close to facing closure this past summer, the Kino arthouse cinema boarded up and long-established theatre companies, such as Meridian, suffering funding issues. And while the new terminal attempts to commercially justify itself, the old building stands abandoned, as if deserted abruptly.

One of the Capital of Culture participants who passed through the building in 2005 was Paul O’Sullivan of the Static Gallery in Liverpool. He was immediately struck by the quaintness and personality of the old building. (It’s not every airport terminal that has an electric fire and a statue of Jack Charlton fishing beside actual fish.) When O’Sullivan came back a year later he noticed the building was vacant.

“I thought it would be a great space,” he says. “It was like a large sound machine, something that could be plugged in again, as it has a PA and visual system. I got to my hotel room, phoned the airport and spoke with John Bruen, the airport property manager, and we took it from there.”

Five years on and that phone call has translated into Terminal Convention, a 10-day music and art event, in partnership with the National Sculpture Factory. A selection of international artists, and some Irish artists – Nevan Lahart, Martin Healy, Seamus Nolan, Mike Hannon, Padraig Timoney – have been invited to engage with the space, while art fairs, live music and a symposium on airport art will be held throughout.

Standing with O’Sullivan and Bruen inside the main arrival area of the old building is a surreal experience. Luggage trolleys are dotted around the floor space, and the signs above check-in desks still function. It’s as if everyone is on their lunch break. “The staff who worked here were incredible, and the people of Cork had a great love for this space,” says Bruen. “Then it was like we got a new fancy-pants building and we all left and shut the door and walked out. It took Paul to come back and say, ‘Hang on: there still is some sense of commitment or passion for this building.’ There is something bizarre about the appearance of it – a feeling that life just stopped on a particular day.”

O’Sullivan says this abruptness and the fact the appearance of the interior has changed little since it was in use have struck a chord with many of the artists invited to participate in the event. “Every time people come in the first impression is a real wow factor, because it looks the way it was left. So when the artists arrived here some try to piece together the last day, and some of them then began thinking about the building as it is now.”

The art commissions range from visual and video installations to manipulating the lighting and existing PA systems and interacting with left luggage and the space itself. Bruen says security issues are easily dealt with by the airport staff and existing CCTV systems, but meeting the artists’ needs has given the airport managers pause for thought.

“For example, one artist needs 80 old TV monitors. That’s tricky. Paul came to me another day and said that one of the artists wants to pressurise the building. We thought, are you really serious? In fairness to the airport director, his reply was, ‘If he thinks he can do it, off with him so.’ ”

The director of National Sculpture Factory, Mary McCarthy, says it is an important chance for Irish artists to be able to participate in an international event like this, albeit on Irish shores. “There have been various proposals for uses for the building, but it is interesting that art has made its way into it first. It is evidence, too, I think of the opportunities that exist at present to make new work. The Irish artists participating have a chance to show their work at this level with their international peers.”

The event also has to be mindful of recent tragic events at the airport, which have in some ways altered public perception and engagement with the space. “It is a very difficult and sad time, and our thoughts are still with the relatives of those who died and the injured,” says Bruen, referring to the plane crash on February 5th in which six people died.

“To be honest we probably would have pushed this more, promotion-wise, but we have held back on some of it out of respect to the families. This event is a way of celebrating life through art. I think if you are going to have an event at an airport this is as good a one to have. It will blend in with the emotions people bring to the airport and the ones already here, all of which are still sensitive.”

Terminal Convention runs at Cork International Airport’s decommissioned terminal from St Patrick’s Day until March 27th; terminalconvention.com.

Brought to you by the letter C . . .

The Liverpool artist Hannah Pierce came across a box of unclaimed lost cameras in the old terminal and decided to get them developed. The results form part of her exhibition. On her blog, lostandfoundincorkairport.wordpress.com, she invites members of the public to post pictures of their time in the building.

Padraig Timoney from Derry, who is based in New York, has made a seven-minute video piece for the convention, The Footage Is of Looking Out the Window on a Naples Morning while the BBC Radio Coverage of George Best’s Funeral Is Playing in the Room.

Shane Munro replaced half of the old yellow lights in the building with white lights on 10-minute timers. He has also taken down the C from Cork and the C from Corcaigh from the original signs on the airside and landside of the terminal. These have been presented within the terminal and placed together, with the lights restored. The remaining letters on the roof will be lit at night.

Fred Pradeaus has a project titled Under Pressure, which seeks to increase the air pressure of the main terminal area using the existing ventilation system and fans to create a stream of air between the main lobby and the lounge room and the luggage space. This pressured air will be noticeable when you move from one space to the other.

Rosa Barba uses a large 70mm projector that will beam a film on to the airstrip. The projection is unable to go through glass, and so it has to go through an opening cut into the glass. This proposition has led to a dialogue with the airport about what is permissible post 9/11.

The Le Pavillon Palais de Tokyo group is using the former public announcement system as its exhibition space and several of the group’s artists will interact with that system.

There is also Terminal Convention Art Fair, a project by Static Gallery that is a fabrication of an art fair. This large installation will, the organisers say, reflect and examine the architecture and purpose of an international art fair set against the market turbulence of both the current global and Irish economies.