In the sixth and final episode of the series, presenter Dónal Dineen meets one of Ireland’s most important contemporary theatre and performance artists, Olwen Fouéré, an artist known for her remarkable and often physical performances. 

Fouéré - whose extensive practice navigates theatre, film, the visual arts, music, dance theatre and literature, speaks with Dónal about her multidisciplinary career and creative journey. He meets her at home in Dublin for an extended conversation on the extent of her singular voyage through a plethora of significant theatrical productions and different art forms across countries and continents.

We find out about her life before she found acting and the immediate impact that discovery had on her in the early days, through the innovative work of Focus Theatre and immersion in the fertile atmosphere of the Project Arts Centre. There are insights into how she expanded her practice and sated an ever-present thirst for experimentation by sharpening her acting tools and developing significant new strands through collaboration with composer Roger Doyle and the formation of the Operating Theatre company and music group.

We hear her thinking behind the subsequent formation of another artistic entity called TheEmergencyRoom for projects ‘in need of immediate attention’, in order to provide a virtual holding space for the development of art-based ideas, relationships and performance contexts. 

One of the first projects to be developed by TheEmergencyRoom was Riverrun which was Olwen’s own adaptation and performance of the voice of the river ‘Life’ in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. We take a deep-dive into the genesis and development of this ground-breaking idea which captivated audiences and critics worldwide. 

Along the way we find out about her love for dance and cinema and how she has carved a space for herself in both those worlds as well as hearing more philosophical thoughts of how theatre works and the nature of performance.

Born on the west coast of Ireland to Breton parents Yann Fouéré and Marie-Magdeleine Mauger, Olwen Fouéré is an artist whose extensive practice navigates theatre, film, the visual arts, music, dance theatre and literature. She has received international acclaim for her work and was performer and artistic collaborator in Jesse Jones’s Tremble, Tremble which represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2017.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Photo by Barry McCall.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

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Full episode streams on Saturday October 15th.

In the sixth and final episode of the series, presenter Dónal Dineen meets one of Ireland’s most important contemporary theatre and performance artists, Olwen Fouéré, an artist known for her remarkable and often physical performances. Fouéré - actor, writer, director and performance artist talks with Dónal about her multidisciplinary career and creative journey. Born on the west coast of Ireland to Breton parents Yann Fouéré and Marie-Magdeleine Mauger, Olwen Fouéré is an artist whose extensive practice navigates theatre, film, the visual arts, music, dance theatre and literature. She has received international acclaim for her work and was performer and artistic collaborator in Jesse Jones’s Tremble, Tremble which represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2017.

Commissioned by Solas Nua, We Are The Makers is a long-form audio documentary series that focuses on the work of contemporary Irish artists and their practices. Built around extensive interviews with some of Ireland’s most eminent artists, these quarterly transmissions are part portrait, part diary, travelogue and soundscape. With the makers as our guide, these are deep-dives into back catalogues and entire bodies of work. 

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Dispatches from the eye of the hurricane and heart of the matter.

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Hot on the heels of The Dance, Pat Collins’ masterful documentary on the same subject, Episode Five of We Are The Makers takes a deep-dive into the making of a contemporary theatrical masterpiece, Mám, by choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, which premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2019.

Our host Dónal Dineen travels to the West Kerry home of Keegan-Dolan’s company Teac Damsa (house of dance or a place for dancing) and the base for both the production and the origin of the story itself. ‘Mám is abstract and instinctive… it effectively plays out a story of modernity intruding on traditional life’ (the Guardian).

This episode traces the acclaimed choreographer’s singular creative journey on a passion project which has intricately woven classical music with contemporary dance practice into the rich tapestry of traditional culture out of which it emerges. We hear in detail about how the unique musical collaboration at the heart of the production between West Kerry concertina player Cormac Begley and Berlin classical collective Stargaze, evolved and achieved concord under Keegan-Dolan’s hand. We discover the origins of his belief in dance as the art of transformation and the evolution of his practice to this point of true expression.

The investigation is timely as Mám is set to return to the Irish stage for an autumn tour. The production was universally praised upon its debut at the 2019  Dublin Theatre Festival and has since been rapturously received at both Madrid’s Teatros Del Canal and Sadler’s Wells in London. A graduate of the Central Ballet School in London, Keegan-Dolan has overseen productions at the English National Opera, The National Theatre in London and the Bavarian State Opera as well as a string of ground-breaking shows as artistic director of the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre.

Find Pat Collins’ film The Dance here: https://www.volta.ie/#!/browse/film/134638/the-dance

https://teacdamsa.com/

https://www.cormacbegley.com/

https://we-are-stargaze.com/

https://harvestfilms.ie/

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Photo by Ros Kavanagh.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

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Full episode streams on Saturday April 30th.

Hot on the heels of The Dance, Pat Collins’ masterful documentary on the same subject, Episode Five of We Are The Makers takes a deep-dive into the making of a contemporary theatrical masterpiece, Mám, by choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, which premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2019.

This episode traces the acclaimed choreographer’s singular creative journey on a passion project which has intricately woven classical music with contemporary dance practice into the rich tapestry of traditional culture out of which it emerges. We hear in detail about how the unique musical collaboration at the heart of the production between West Kerry concertina player Cormac Begley and Berlin classical collective Stargaze, evolved and achieved concord under Keegan-Dolan’s hand. We discover the origins of his belief in dance as the art of transformation and the evolution of his practice to this point of true expression.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien.

Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

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Episode Four features a new collaboration from two Limerick artists, rapper and poet Denise Chaila and filmmaker Brian Cross (B+). Their piece, Energy: A Visual Mixtape is a short film like no other, at just 15 minutes long, it contains a multitude.

The film eulogizes local Limerick spaces including Ardnacrusha Power Station, Mount Trenchard House and People’s Park, montaging archival and contemporary footage to form visual couplets that marry diasporic histories, racial discrimination and political ideologies, magic and music.

For this episode Dónal Dineen travels to Limerick and spends two days with the artists as they prepare to show the film to a hometown audience at the Belltable theatre for the first time, before installing it for exhibition at Ormston House gallery. Denise and B+ share their thoughts on the experience of making work together and explain exactly how that came about.

We discover how their respective practices resulted in connecting Irish and African histories and get an insight into some of the critical information they discovered during their combined research. We also get a valuable insight into the collaborative process which in this case spans disciplines and generations.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced and edited by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Cover photo by Paul Tarpey.

Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

https://www.solasnua.org/

https://denisechaila.bandcamp.com/

http://www.mochilla.com/bplus

https://ormstonhouse.com/programme/energy-a-visual-mixtape/

https://www.cultureireland.ie/

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Episode Four features a new collaboration from two Limerick artists, rapper and poet Denise Chaila and filmmaker Brian Cross (B+). Their piece, Energy: A Visual Mixtape is a short film like no other, at just 15 minutes long, it contains a multitude.

The film eulogizes local Limerick spaces including Ardnacrusha Power Station, Mount Trenchard House and People’s Park, montaging archival and contemporary footage to form visual couplets that marry diasporic histories, racial discrimination and political ideologies, magic and music.

The full episode streams on Saturday December 11th.

For this episode Dónal Dineen travels to Limerick and spends two days with the artists as they prepare to show the film to a hometown audience at the Belltable theatre for the first time, before installing it for exhibition at Ormston House gallery. Denise and B+ share their thoughts on the experience of making work together and explain exactly how that came about.

We discover how their respective practices resulted in connecting Irish and African histories and get an insight into some of the critical information they discovered during their combined research. We also get a valuable insight into the collaborative process which in this case spans disciplines and generations.

https://www.solasnua.org/events/we-are-makers-episode-four-denise-chaila-and-brian-cross-b

https://ormstonhouse.com/programme/energy-a-visual-mixtape/

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien.

Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

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Episode Three is an exploration of the work of visual artist Isabel Nolan, with particular emphasis on the making of her latest exhibition, A Delicate Bond Which is Also a Gap, at Solstice Arts Centre in Navan.

Isabel has an expansive practice incorporating sculpture, painting, textile work, photography, writing and works on paper, driven by a restless inquisitiveness and a burning intelligence. For this episode Dónal takes a deep dive into her recently published book of artwork and essays Curling Up With Reality, before focusing on the inspiration and methodology behind her latest show.

The opening chapter of this episode was recorded on the nearby Hill of Tara, a suitable portal into an intriguing world of contemporary art.

Isabel’s work is included in public collections such as: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Tate, London; The Hugh Lane Gallery, Ireland and Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi. Isabel has shown her work all over the world and she represented Ireland at the 51st Venice Biennale as part of a group exhibition in 2005. In late 2020 Launchpad and Kerlin Gallery published a survey of the last 10 years of Nolan’s work which includes over 20 of the artist’s writings.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced and edited by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien.

Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

https://www.kerlingallery.com/artists/isabel-nolan

https://solasnua.org/

https://cultureireland.ie/

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Episode #3 of We Are The Makers is an exploration of the work of visual artist Isabel Nolan, with particular emphasis on the making of her latest exhibition, A Delicate Bond Which is Also a Gap, at Solstice Arts Centre in Navan.

The full episode streams on September 25th.

Isabel has an expansive practice incorporating sculpture, painting, textile work, photography, writing and works on paper, driven by a restless inquisitiveness and a burning intelligence. For this episode Dónal takes a deep dive into her recently published book of artwork and essays Curling Up With Reality, before focusing on the inspiration and methodology behind her latest show.

https://www.kerlingallery.com/artists/isabel-nolan

https://www.solasnua.org/events/we-are-makers-episode-three-isabel-nolan

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien.

Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

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Episode Two charts the arc of choreographer Liz Roche's journey to the top of the contemporary dance world.

From starting at ballet school in Dublin at aged of seven, through training in London Contemporary Dance School, to dancing across Europe, Dónal hears how her education and experience onstage informs her finely wrought and beautifully choreographed productions. Together they talk about the act of making, the collision of sound, movement and image and the cross-disciplinary influences that have inspired her art and career.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced and edited by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences. Cover photo by Matthew Thompson.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

https://solasnua.org/

https://cultureireland.ie/

https://lizrochecompany.com/

Streaming in full from tomorrow, June 26th, Episode #2 of We Are the Makers charts the arc of choreographer Liz Roche's journey to the top of the contemporary dance world.

Together she and Dónal talk about the act of making, the collision of sound, movement and image, and the cross-disciplinary influences that have inspired her art and career.

We Are The Makers is written and presented by Irish broadcaster Dónal Dineen and produced by Ian Cudmore. Original music by Ultan O’Brien. Commissioned by Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., bringing contemporary Irish art to U.S. audiences.

Kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

Solasnua.org

Cultureireland.ie

Lizrochecompany.com