Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the temporary projects artists whose work has included wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin and Paris's Pont Neuf, will be among the keynote speakers at Public ART: Making It Work, a two-day seminar organised by the National Sculpture Factory. It takes place in the RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, on Monday and Tuesday. Up to 400 Irish and overseas delegates are expected at the event, which is funded by the Office of Public Works and the Arts Council.
Other speakers at the seminar will include French art critic and curator Guy Tortosa; the Italian architect and director of the Venice Biennale of Architecture Massimiliano Fuksas; John Fitzgerald, Dublin City Manager; and Irish Times journalist Fintan O'Toole. A panel discussion featuring Prof Ciaran Benson of UCD, Irish Times journalists Frank McDonald and Medb Ruane, the OPW chairman, Barry Murphy, and the director of the Arts Council, Patricia Quinn, will focus on issues such as the place and placing of public art, models of communication and consultation, and issues of value and benefit, and private art/ public aesthetic.
A series of presentations on specific projects and issues will include talks from Irish and international practitioners, among them the director of England's Public Art Forum, Simon Grennan, architect Tom de Paor, London-based architect Ian Ritchie, OPW architect Angela Rolfe, Brenda McParland from the Irish Museum of Modern Art and representatives from Sligo County Council.
Further information on the seminar and its programme is available from the National Sculpture Factory. Tel: 0868136624 or 021-4314353.