The 2024 edition of the festival will include the presentation of ‘In Search of Hy-Brasil – Ireland’s national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023’. The project examines the relationship between the islands of Ireland and their natural environment and puts our islands’ diverse communities, culture, and experiences right at the centre of the discourse surrounding our shared future.

Curated by a team of five architects: Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen, and Joseph Mackey; Ireland’s national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, In Search of Hy-Brasil, derives from an intense engagement with the islands of Ireland and is a direct provocation to all of us to reimagine the vast combined territory of land and ocean we call our home.

We are an island nation facing an uncertain future. The challenges of climate change, renewable energy, ethical food production and biodiversity must be met quickly, with purpose, renewing the lost equilibrium between ourselves and the natural world. In making this adjustment, our islands’ inventiveness in the face of adversity and creativity in response to having less provides us with the necessary tools and narratives to inspire more sustainable ways of living.

In bringing the installation to Galway, the curators hope to share their project with an Irish audience, and through a related supporting programme of events, initiate a series of conversations around a shared vision for a more sustainable future.

A supporting programme of cultural events will be organised around the content of the installation. The programme takes the form of supporting exhibitions, film screenings, related talks, and symposia.