Vampires, Monsters and the Undead Take Centre Stage at Goethe-Institut Exhibition

The Goethe-Institut Irland has announced details of a new interdisciplinary art exhibition entitled DÉAD, which draws on immersive technologies to celebrate the legacy of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s classic silent film Nosferatu.

Through virtual reality (VR) installations, 3D animations, video projections, sculptures and more, the exhibition brings vampires, monsters and the undead to life and invites visitors to Merrion Square to explore topics including life cycles, (im)mortality, and transience.

Created by students and recent graduates from six notable arts colleges in Ireland and Germany, the exhibition has emerged from the Creative Pathways programme, an initiative established by the Irish Embassy in Berlin to bring together students and lecturers based in both countries to develop collaborative and interdisciplinary artworks.

At the start of the programme, artists based in Ireland were paired with artists based in Germany. Artists with complimentary skillsets and practices were matched and their collaboration was guided by lecturers from participating colleges.

The current edition of Creative Pathways is run in partnership with the Goethe-Institut in Ireland. Commenting on the exhibition, the institute’s Director, Ulrike Gasser said: “We are delighted to welcome this hugely talented group of emerging artists from Ireland and Germany to our premises on Merrion Square to present their work in the DÉAD exhibition.”

“The students and graduates come from a wide range of artistic disciplines, including fine art, drama and theatre, film, and sound art, to name but a few. Through their interdisciplinary work, they explore the joint German-Irish heritage of Dracula and Nosferatu, and raise intriguing questions about life, death and the complexity of the human condition.”

“The exhibition features narratives from different European perspectives and beyond. It has been fantastic to follow the artistic and cultural exchanges throughout the programme, and to see new models for remote collaboration emerge. I encourage everyone to visit us at the Goethe-Institut to see this fantastic exhibition.”

The twelve artists whose work will be on display are: Sona Smedkova (ATU Galway); Veronika Pfaffinger (HfBK Dresden); Stefania Smolkina (HBG Leipzig); Dunk Murphy (UL); Patryk Kujawa (HfBK Dresden); Adrian McCarthy (UCC); Maximiliano Sinani (Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main); Melissa Morrigan (UCC); Adrian Q. Vardi (HGB Leipzig); Manuel McCarthy (UL); Rocío Romero Grau (ATU Galway); and John Flindt (Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main).

DÉÁD will open at the Goethe-Institut Irland on Friday, 22nd September (Culture Night) and run until Friday, 27th October 2023. The exhibition is free to visit, and all are welcome.

For more information, visit goethe.de/Ireland.