EUROPA

ADMISSION FREE
Eoghan McTigue produced two new films of emblematic illuminated structures, one of which, 'The Europa Hotel' was screened in Project's Cube for a week, the other 'Mercedesstern' was screened at the Goethe Institut. Both films investigate the role and visibility of forms of display that function in a contested urban space particularly Berlin and Belfast. The films are very straight-forward, trying to capture some of the romance and majesty of city life.
The 'Europa Hotel' the most bombed in Europe, has an iconic presence in the city of Belfast and was frequently used as a base by visiting journalists during the Troubles. The hotel is a widely visible landmark and point of reference due to both its prominent location and its bright red neon sign, which is automatically illuminated every evening. . McTigue's film documents the illuminated neon sign from different vantage points in the city, cutting intermittently to black and looping back on itself to create a continuum. The constant visibility of the hotel's sign, as experienced in the city and in the installation, is offset by the black screen which offers the viewer no visibility at all.
McTigue's screening in the Goethe Institut, 'Mercedesstern' displayed a huge illuminated Mercedes logo which rotates slowly and evenly above the Europa Centre on Tautzienstrasse. The Europa Centre was built in 1965, four years after the Berlin Wall was erected, this area marked the 'new' centre of West Berlin until the wall came down in 1989. The film loops after three minutes creating a continuum.
"In my work I'm interested in investigating forms of display in the built environment, I'm also interested in the way we approach and accord value to works of art in the context of museums and galleries. The projects I've been on recently mix photography or film and architectural space to explore the way these different elements interact and create meaning".
Biography
Born in Galway, McTigue studied Fine Art at the University of Ulster and Art and Architecture at Kent Institute of Art and Design. His work usually takes an interest in the urban, exploring the built environment, the physical character of city space and most specifically, sites designed for the dissemination of public information. Previous solo exhibitions include 'The Image Screen' (2007) and 'Fragments of Another Language' (2005), Galerie Kuttner Siebert, Berlin. And group exhibitions include 'Eurojets Future', Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2005 and 2001), 'Greyscale/ CMYK', Tramway, Glasgow (2002) and 'Something Forever' Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2000).