“This double movement is a profound one: architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience.”

Roland Barthes, ‘The Eiffel Tower’, 1979

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios is pleased to present a new exhibition by Irish artist Gavin Murphy. Double Movement includes works in film, installation, sculpture, text and photography and stems from the artist’s in-depth research into the now defunct Eblana theatre, which was located in the basement of Dublin’s famous central bus station Busáras.

The works in Double Movement, document architectural and theatre histories in Ireland, and seek to highlight gaps in our collective memory, shining a light on forgotten cultural movements. Art and its forms can profoundly change a society from within, and Murphy’s work not only acts to help us to remember the Eblana theatre as it was, and make its cultural importance contemporary again, but also invites us to contemplate the society in which it was formed, and its relationship to the present. Murphy’s research is also informed by an interest in both the cultural and evidential value of architectural structures, which can reflect and focus a wide variety of social facts: from the state of the industrial arts, to the processes of social organisation, and the beliefs and world-outlooks of a whole society. The Eblana takes on further significance for Murphy as a representation of the lifecycle of an artist-run space, and Murphy’s work seeks to visualise the energy that is needed to maintain a cultural venue like the Eblana, as well as to articulate the significance these types of projects can have in society.

Double Movement is funded by The Arts Council and The Arup Trust, and is supported by The Irish Architecture Foundation and The Irish Theatre Archive, with thanks to Scott Tallon Walker Architects, Dublin City Archives and Project Arts Centre.

Related events include Uncovering Michael Scott’s Busáras, a tour of Busáras, with Prof. Kathleen James-Chakraborty and Gavin Murphy; a panel discussion: The city is a theatre of social action – Modernist Architecture and Theatre in Ireland, 1950s–1980s and a screening of Michael Scott: A Changing Man by Ciarín Scott here at the IAF.

More information on Double Movement: templebargallery.com