Ronan McCrea | Künstler

In 2003 Barbara Ebert, Programme Manager at Goethe-Institut Irland invited me along with curators Vaari Claffey and Grant Watson to help establish the programme at what became The Return Gallery – then and now – the smallest gallery in Dublin located on the landing return between ground and first floor of the Merrion Square building.

We kicked off with a HUGE group exhibition called The National Gallery (!) featuring a single 35mm slide from nearly a hundred participating artists laid out on a lightbox for viewing.

Following that I curated some other exhibitions there by Augustine O’Donohue, Daniel Olsen, Paul O’Neill and later made an exhibition there myself in 2007 and also attended many great shows and events there along the way. 

For me the early 2000s was febrile time of artistic activity, curatorial experimentation, collaboration and cross-connection and the Goethe-Institut Irland and Return Gallery was very much part of that vibrant cultural eco-system.