the border

Susanne Bosch, Mark Clare, Declan Clarke, Sandra Johnston, Mairéad McClean, Eoghan McTigue

‘The border’ concerns itself with the conflict in Northern Ireland and explores current issues relating to the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will become an exterior European border following Brexit.

Looking back to ‘the troubles’ – the civil war-like conflict between 1969 and 1998 – it is possible to understand how political tensions emerge, what dangers they harbour, and how fragile democratic societies can be. Northern Ireland, however, also represents how a violent conflict can be overcome.

In tracing the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland as well as current geopolitical and ideological concerns regarding the border, the exhibition examines the power struggles spawned by differing concepts of identity, nationalism, and religion; and, too, it discusses how history is written, and how civil war affects people’s everyday lives. The photographs and films featured in ‘the border’ show the interweaving strands of historical, personal, narrative, and fictional approaches.