Date: Wednesday, 15 Jan
Time: 7pm
Location: The Depot, The Complex, Dublin 7
Free event, no booking required
Note, This performance is not suitable for children.
BACKGROUND is a new performance devised by artist Bea McMahon, choreographer Artémise Ploegaerts and theatre maker and writer Díc Walsh. The performance responds to the exhibition GOD by Bea McMahon and Conor McFeely, which is currently on show in The Gallery.
For the exhibition GOD, Bea McMahon made portraits of backgrounds that appeared in dreams. In our dreaming state we spend a considerable amount of energy smoothly changing the backgrounds between scenes which provide environments for the dramatic and emotional content. The performance seeks to place the characters, scenes and words into a form whereby they get rearranged by the background. The dreamer in Peter is the dreamer in Paul.
BACKGROUND has been made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fonds
and The Arts Council of Ireland.
Bea McMahon (IE/NL) uses many different media including sculpture, performance, song,
dance, moving image and installation, often working in collaboration with others. Trained in
mathematics and mathematical physics, she navigates through conceptions of reality and their corresponding appearances in the outside world.
Recent collaborations include Pilot a TV series shot in various locations including Treignac
Projet, FR and Kunstverein Aughrim IE (ongoing); Another Shot at Love, a romantic comedy
commissioned for the 40th EVA biennale in Limerick, IE 2023; live performance with lip-
synching pop group Dina from Egypt in I’ll be your Mirror, Hugh Lane Gallery, IE 2023 and pop-video smash-hits magazine launch at Framerframed, Amsterdam NL 2024. Recent exhibitions include Animal Farm, Paper Biennale, Museum Rijkswijk, The Hague, NL
2024; Sequins, with Maaike Schoorel at Shimmer, Rotterdam, NL 2023; Floppy Forest at
Treignac Projet, FR 2021; and group shows Ad Ampio Respira, Artopia Gallery, Milan 2022;
Under Bat Hill at W139, Amsterdam 2021.
Artémise Ploegaerts (FR/NL) is a choreographer and performance artist. Her practice is
multidisciplinary and combines movement with theater and/or video.
She completed a B.A Dance Theatre at Trinity Laban in London. She has a Master of
choreography from ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Arnhem (NL). Her work has been shown and supported by Dansmakers Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum, CCN La Briqueterie France, De Lindenberg Nijmegen, Laban Centre London, Le Regard Cygne Paris, Les Moulins de Paillard France, KLAP Maison pour la danse Marseille, among others.
Díc Walsh (IE) is interested in author driven, experimental theatre. His work ranges from very
formalistic explorations of language, often using verbatim transcriptions, to using theatre to
meditate on very personal and emotive themes.
Originally trained as an architect, he began making theatre in 2009 inspired by the works of
Richard Maxwell, Jerome Bel, John Jesurun and Forced Entertainment. Past work includes,
George Bush and Children 2016, Project Art Centre, Dublin; Oneday 2018, Iontas Theatre,
Dublin and Drainage Scheme 2023, Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He is currently developing a project called Tenth Avenue with the New York City Players.