There is something admirably edgy about Galway’s TULCA Festival of Visual Arts running at this time of year, so close to the usual round of Christmas exhibitions. TULCA 2024 is curated by Michele Horrigan under the title The Salvage Agency, and features contemporary art of all kinds at various venues all over the city, including professional galleries, Galway University and a fishing tackle shop. Alongside her activities as an artist and curator, Horrigan is the founder and director of Askeaton Contemporary Arts, which promotes residencies and exhibitions in Askeaton, Co Limerick.
She is also the editor and publisher of ACA Public, and writes on art for publications such as Bomb Magazine. Her intention for The Salvage Agency was that it should consider the role of art in ecology and the environment. One of Horrigan’s inspirations is a short story by the late Galway writer Walter Macken.
“I had this collection of his called City of Tribes,” she says. “And there was one story called The City that really jumped out at me. It’s written from the perspective of a seagull flying over Galway and encountering different situations, like the bustle of the market in the square, or a drunk falling out of a pub, or conversations happening around the town.
“Nowadays there's a lot of fiction written from a non-human perspective, but this is a text that's 80 years old and is so ahead of its time. I think the story is just as relevant today as when it was written. There’s new h.
