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Must See words: Lisa Givens GALVANISE Hothouse by
Malaprop - Photo: Thérèse Rafter ThisIsPopBaby bring the second edition of their Where We Live arts festival interrogating and celebrating what it means, and how it feels, to live in Dublin and Ireland today. Sitting within the internationally-renowned St. Patrick’s Festival, Where We Live is made up of red-hot theatre, exhilarating music collaborations, rapid-response performance, playful and evocative visual art installations, an iconic one-off record fair, dangerous ideas and opposing views… with a little bit of dancing to top it all off. Its thrilling takeover and transformation of Project Arts Centre in the heart of Dublin city takes place from Wednesday March 11 to Saturday March 21. Led by stories from the margins and told by some of the freshest artistic voices Ireland has to offer, Where We Live reflects the changes, celebrates the differences and shines a light in the dark corners of this place we call home. This year’s festival explores ideas around occupation, assimilation and community-making, with stories inspired by the evolving city, homelessness, gender, migration, connection, inclusivity, the climate crisis, nightlife culture and the power of active citizenship. Building on the legacy of the inaugural Where We Live (2018), this year’s edition continues to tell urgent stories that galvanise diverse communities and engender positive change. 10 Since 2018 two of the theatre pieces (Not A Funny Word & The Mouth of A Shark) have successfully toured; a work-in-progress (Sure Look It, Fuck It) enjoyed a sold out full production at Project Arts Centre last March with an upcoming tour on the cards; short pieces that premiered at WERKHouse have gone on to become award-winning full productions (Caged, OverFired). Most impressively, the multi-media exhibition Made In Dublin has grown into a larger-scale exhibition with acclaimed outings in London and Madrid, and has also been turned into a stunning art book published by Hudson and Thames. ThisIsPopBaby Co-Directors Jenny Jennings & Phillip McMahon elaborate: “This year we bring together over 80 incredible artists in an even deeper investigation of the world around us today. The festival is passionate about fairness, about inclusivity and about the power of stories to provoke conversation, to foster connection, to make us pause, rethink, reframe.... and have a great night out in the process. It’s exciting to be able to bring these conversations to a national and international stage as part of the St. Patrick’s Festival programme, where we collectively imagine and re-imagine what our city and country could be.” Remember This Night - Fionnuala Gygax