Artists from Israel exhibit at Void Gallery

The ‘Nothing But Longing’ exhibition will be launched in the Patrick Street gallery tomorrow (Saturday) and is a culmination of work by artists who resided at Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower in Cushendall throughout 2014/16.

Void has had a close relationship with artist and musician Bill Drummond for the last 11 years, starting in 2006 when Drummond was commissioned to write an essay on Irish artist Denis McNulty who was exhibiting at that time in the Derry gallery. The essay subsequently became a chapter in Drummond’s book ‘The 17’ published in 2008. During that year, Void Director Maoliosa Boyle invited Drummond to return to the city to create Birth, Marriage and Death for Void. In 2009-10 Void curated The Curfew Tower in Cushendall overseeing artists residing in the tower for 12 months. Since then, Drummond and Void have maintained discussions around future projects, in particular the exhibiting of the current group of artists from Israel.

In 2011, Bill Drummond met Sagit Mezamer, a curator for the artist run organisation Yaffo 23 in Jerusalem. Towards the end of 2014, Bill Drummond approached Sagit Mezamer to curate a year-long residency with artists from Israel.

This subsequently turned into an 18-month residency and Derry’s Void was invited to partner once again.

‘Nothing But Longing’ is a result of the work that was produced throughout those 18 months by 16 of the 21 artists in total.

The work created spans over the three gallery spaces in Void and on the night of the opening will extend beyond the gallery to Derry’s Derby Bar for a performance by artist.

Throughout Saturday evening, as the exhibition opens there will be a number of events and performances starting at 5.30pm with an interactive event by artists Effi and Amir.

This will be followed at 6.30pm with a participatory cookery event by Rafram Chaddad followed with a discussion involving Sagit Mezamer and the artists and the launch of ‘Ireland Versus Israel’ - a book containing 20 interviews with the 21 artists. Commenting on the exhibition, a Void spokesperson said: “Void would like to make clear that ‘Nothing But Longing’ is not supported by funding from the Israeli State and that all the artists in the exhibition condemn the occupation of Palestine by Israel.”

Other events taking place as part of Saturday’s launch include an interactive musical performance by Artist Guy Goldstein in Void’s Gallery 1. Artists Debbie Sharp and Roseanne Robertson present Threshold (handover of The Curfew Tower) in The Process Room at 8:30pm.

At 9pm, the exhibition launch will move to The Derby Bar for a highly anticipated performance by artist Yonathan Levy featuring Bill Drummond and the people of Derry of Ulysses by James Joyce.