(1) For Private Use 
(2) Biosphere
(3) 10th Anniversary




FREE, OUTDOOR‑BASED EXPERIMENTAL ENCOUNTERS. RADICAL WORKS EXPLORING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DUBLIN’S NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT AS WE CONFRONT THE CLIMATE CRISIS.


As we begin to reconnect with each other and the world around us, Kirkos are emerging from lockdown to present Biosphere, a radical set of free, outdoor-based experimental encounters, taking place from September 1st-6th at various locations around Dublin. 

From sound art, to pop-up concerts, to installations and interventions, the programme across the week involves works by Irish and international composers that find new, beautiful ways to explore our relationship with Dublin’s natural & built environment as we confront the climate crisis. Covid-19 and the rapid encroachment of the climate crisis have heightened awareness within the music world that business as usual may be short-lived, if it ever truly returns. 


Biosphere is centered on works truly designed to be performed outdoors, which could have no life in a conventional concert space.


Taken in total, these works form an artistic commentary on our current moment of reckoning with the reality of the climate crisis. Kirkos will use the encounters across the week as an opportunity to experiment in tracking and reducing the carbon footprint of music events. Following the event, a report on the footprint incurred with analysis on reductions achieved, as well as areas for improvement, will be published on the Kirkos website and shared with ensembles around the world. 

With the outdoors as our “venue”, all contributing artists have ventured on new artistic endeavours by designing nature into the fabric of their work; making the environment inseparable from the music. The chosen surroundings as well as the environmental impact and theme of the works (from creation, to rehearsals, to performance) were carefully considered by composers and Kirkos when creating the programme of encounters.
While the exact lineup and locations will be announced one week prior to the event, the audience can expect:

A performance of Tai Chi inside a Zorb ball filled with shredded single use plastic

A string quartet in the sea with the tide rising till it immerses them and their instruments

A Zoom call across Dublin Bay 

Improvisational text pieces inviting our online followers to take their plant on a walk

A solo horn player battling the tide and the dangers of rising sea levels

A piece structured around the Clare v Galway 2018 All-Ireland semi-final (replayed by 2 people instead of 30,
and this time played over a salvaged piano at a beach…)

Many more captivating, shocking & moving adventures of the imagination.  

Our contributing artists are engaged in multiple media, but come from the core disciplines of music (Tom Lane, Susan Geaney, Nick Roth, Robert Coleman, Paul Scully, Jennifer Walshe, Patrick Ellis, Sebastian Adams, Andy Ingamells, Seán Clancy), interdisciplinary art (Natasha Bourke) dance (Laura Sarah Dowdall), and theatre (Joan Somers Donnelly). 

All works will be performed by members of Kirkos, sometimes with the addition of the composers.
Pieces
This Is About – Andy Ingamells + Séan Clancy

Boundary Music – Arie Verheul van de Ven

Bikes and Harmonicas – Daniil Pilchen

Decay... – Robert Coleman

Nick Roth – Flocking III

Swim Piece – Joan Somers Donnelly

Celebration of The Agents of the Apocalypse – John Godfrey

Aquamonica – Kathryn Williams + Andy Ingamells

Embodied Nature – Laura Sarah Dowdall

Out of Sight – Maya Verlaak

Testero Utero Go! Litter Womb – Natasha Bourke

Around The Clocks – Patrick Ellis

Line of Sight – Paul Scully

Aistear Riachtanach / Necessary Journey – Ruairí Ó’Donnabháin

TIDE – Tom Lane

Tide Quartet – Sebastian Adams

Text Pieces – Susan Geaney

The Wasistas of Thereswhere – The Dowager Marchylove

Tape Measure – Wilson Leywantono