Renowned film-maker Alan Gilsenan will headline Living Canvas Summer Programme with his evocative Ghosts of Baggotonia

Coinciding with the International Literature Programme Dublin, Living Canvas, Europe’s largest outdoor digital arts screen, is proud to present a new season celebrating the written word. Artists and poets combine to show works from around the world in the part of Dublin that is known as Baggotonia.

As a UNESCO World City of Literature, Dublin has a reputation as a place of inspiration. The area between Baggot Street and the Grand Canal has been particularly renowned as home to a rich cultural mix of writers and creative thinkers.

From Patrick Kavanagh to Mary Lavin, Brendan Behan to Elizabeth Bowen, Alan Gilsenan’s haunting film, Ghosts of Baggotonia captures the quarter’s many moods and minds. Following its limited cinema release, IPUT Real Estate is proud to headline this special summer literary season with such a remarkable and beautiful work.

Gilsenan says:

I’m delighted to see Ghosts of Baggotonia coming home to the banks of the Grand Canal – shot during those strange days of the pandemic lock-down, wandering the deserted streets of my childhood with my Leica Monochrome camera – it was both a retrieval of unreliable personal memories and a meditation of the remarkable ghosts of a mostly forgotten era.

The new programme also features an international selection of Poetry on Film, including works by Sasha Terfous, Harry Clifton, Moncho Ollin Alvarado, Molly Twomey, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Patrick Fusco, Jessica Traynor, Sarah Sala, and Khairani Barokka.

These are shown alongside Owen Boss and ANU Productions’ Death of Croppy Nelson, and Luke McManus’s homage to the Grand Canal, Beyond the Circular Line.

Weekend mornings are dedicated to families, as Farouk Alao showcases his new Living Canvas commission, a joyful bee’s-eye-view of the world inspired by Catherine Ann Cullen’s poem, Buzzin’ with the Cousins. This is presented in a double bill every Saturday and Sunday with another special family event, Hek Hek Hoo, another new film, made with artist Julie Weber and pupils from the neighbouring John Scottus and St. Enda’s Primary Schools as part of the RHA Kids project with the Royal Hibernian Academy, which is supported by IPUT Real Estate.