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EDITORIAL:
Blow-In is the culmination of Danger Museum’s encounters with Cork over the past year and our conversations with some of the city’s cultural community. 13 interviews are compiled in this publication, while collage pieces are shown in Cork Public Museum. The project continues a line of pieces investigating cultural scenes, such as Peanut Circuit (2003) and Radio Hue (2004). Both employed the interview to take the pulse of the art worlds of, respectively, Oslo and Seoul and formed the basis for interpretation through visual and sculptural pieces.

This project has evolved in response to conversations and to our experience as outsiders, or ‘blow-ins’, to the city during three visits. The first gave us a general picture through informal meetings, sightseeing and a presentation at the Crawford Municipal Gallery. During our return in March this year, our impression altered due to the affect of Cork 2005 on the city.

Blow-in is an Irish term that, depending on the situation, can be positive or negative - welcome fresh blood, or someone who doesn’t belong. In a wider sense it resonates with issues that came up in the conversations, such as small-town mentalities, regeneration and the desire to leave.

The term also fits in with some of our thoughts on contemporary artistic practice in general. The artist residency has become a mode and site of work in itself. Residencies can be peculiar in their aim to make themes or match people up who otherwise would never have met, or who may not have wanted to work together. Although a constructed situation, being parachuted into a place often becomes the starting point for a piece for us. The anxiety of parachuting can indeed be compared to our feeling of coming to Cork: falling through the clouds, getting a clearer picture, but then not knowing whether the landing will be a success.

We thought interviews would be a way of shortcutting into the public opinion, to get an understanding of Cork’s art scene. We asked people we had grown familiar with - mostly artists - and some from outside our temporary Cork circle, such as people in institutions and administrations, a student and a museum porter. Together they form a spectrum of the Cork scene. It is not a democratic survey but reflects our meeting with Cork, starting with curator Grant Watson introducing us to Ali Robertson of the Cork Midsummer Festival a year ago. It is important to stress that airing the opinions in this booklet is not an attempt at directing criticism.

The conversations have worked as input for a set of collages but are also meant as verbal records of some of Cork’s cultural participants. The representation is approximately 50/50 Cork people and newcomers. They speak about the framework for art in Cork, how to improve conditions and the significance of the Capital of Culture to the city. The moods shift between patriotism, scepticism, hope and cynicism about practicing in Cork today.

Our collage allegories over the city introduce other stuff that attracted us in Cork – architecture, local sceneries and animal life, as well as its charm. We see Cork as a small town of many talents, where being a big fish can be both good and bad. It has become the retreat for many big city getaways, a comfortable yet also inhibiting place for those with ambitions. And it has to be experienced over time to be made sense of, dug out of the mist or, if you like, brewery steam. Yet as you read the interviews certain things reoccur. Even if you never visit Cork, this gives you an idea of the scale of the city. People have their heads in clouds, some look beyond the city border and some have made a life-long commitment here.

Cork Public Museum is located in Fitzgerald Park, the grounds of the Cork International Exhibition of 1902/03. The museum’s permanent collection displays relics of the event. Souvenirs, pieces of china, a season ticket. We are particularly interested in a dried-up cigar which, according to the museum’s porter, was given to the Lord Mayor of Cork, Fitzgerald, by King Edward VII at the luncheon held during the king’s visit.

Cork International Exhibition would have outshone Cork 2005 many times over in terms of size and investment. It was huge at the time, yet today it has nearly disappeared from the city’s memory. If the Cork International Exhibition failed at a long-lasting impact and placing Cork on the world's cultural map, how can the city make it this time?
Looking at the remains of Cork 1902/03, we can’t help wondering what will be left after Cork 2005 proclaimed “the greatest year” since the International Exhibitions, by the current Lord mayor of Cork.
After our time in Cork, we guess that the kind of events that will make changes, will not be the spectacular ones, but those where it is invested in longer processes. The realisation of Blow-In and its effects on our practice and future relationship with Cork, will perhaps be an example of this. (although we love fireworks...)

The interviews address the long-term effects of Cork 2005, and it felt right to place this discourse on the backdrop of this other (half-forgotten) international event.

To commemorate the potential of progress – or oblivion - of the year 2005 for Cork, we donate a cigar-shaped textile testimonial, made by Tokuko Shimizu, to the city. The ceremony takes place on the day of the exhibition opening and as a homage to the optimism of the Cork International Exhibition and a pun on the blown-in artist; we deliver the cigar by parachute.

Danger Museum, June 2005