of de Blacam and Meagher is Ireland's exhibition at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition to be held this autumn in Venice. The exhibition will address de Blacam and Meagher Architects' built and unbuilt portfolio of the last 33 years and seeks to communicate the cultural landscape of Ireland through their seminal work.

A Culture Ireland initiative in partnership with the Arts Council of Ireland, the exhibition was commissioned by the Irish Architecture Foundation under the directorship of Nathalie Weadick. The exhibition concept takes the form of a book unbound, containing volumes of drawing and photographic reproductions from the archives, contemporary photography and readings of the work with commentaries. The commentaries come from a cross-generational collective, who share an encounter with the architecture of de Blacam and Meagher. Their commentaries offer a contemporary and critical view of the practice and its positioning in the wider context of Irish architecture.

of de Blacam and Meagher will be presented in the oratory of Chiesa di San Gallo. The oratory’s perfect jewel-box-like dimensions establishe the appropriate context architecturally and historically for the exhibition's curatorial thesis to be played out. Similarly, the venue responds to La Biennale’s theme People Meet in Architecture, encouraging the public to not only interact with the paper archive exhibition but with the physical space it is placed within.

Nine thousand volumes are presented as paper stacks on oak joinery in the eighteenth century oratory of the Irish monk St.Gall near Piazza San Marco. The installation within the oratory acts as both archive and reading room. The public are invited to read the work and take it away as a folio. Over time the stacks are depleted by the actions of the public, until finally we are left only with the furnishings. The archive will, in essence be consumed.

of de Blacam and Meagher is curated by Tom dePaor, Peter Maybury, Alice Casey and Cian Deegan. While avoiding rhetoric and representation, they have created a three-dimensional evocation of a concept, which connects the public to the subject through invited interpretations and in turn reveals the critical significance of the practice. They arrange the works as they exist and as they are understood.

The exhibition has two speeds; one is the immediate visual impact created by imposing paper stacks, scaled to physically and theatrically occupy the space; the second a deep and enveloping engagement of an archive, encouraging the act of reading and observation, research and questioning.

Chiesa di San Gallo,
Campo San Gallo,
San Marco 1103

29 August - 21 November 2010
Tuesday - Sunday: 10.00-18.00

Press preview:
27 august 2.00pm,
Chiesa di San Gallo

Official opening:
27 August 5.00pm,
Chiesa di San Gallo