To coincide with Dublin Gallery Weekend, Solomon Fine Art is delighted to host an exclusive screening of the feature length film JOHN BEHAN - ODYSSEY. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the artist John Behan, Director Donald Taylor Black and NGO Co-ordinator Emily Wilson.
Directed by Donald Taylor-Black this is not a conventional profile but a cinematic documentary which shows the artist at work at home and abroad. It follows John as he travels back to Greece for the first time since the Covid Pandemic. He revisits the empty ruins of Camp Eleonas, where he previously taught art to migrants, and then continues the teaching at a recently established NGO, The Fáilte Centre.
From time to time, the film flashes back to archive footage, as he tells the story of his life. He was born in Sheriff Street in Dublin and first exhibited at the Living Art Exhibition in 1960, and was part of the socially conscious group that founded the Project Arts Centre.
JOHN BEHAN RHA is perhaps Ireland’s best-known living sculptor, who is as busy as ever in his 86th year, producing work for his regular exhibitions in Ireland and abroad. His artistic practice has always dealt with displacement of people and emigration and two of the most celebrated examples of his public sculpture are the National Famine Memorial at Murrisk, near Westport, and ‘Arrival’, at the UN headquarters in New York.
The film was shot between 2020 and 2023.
Written & Directed: Donald Taylor Black
Producers: Donald Taylor Black, Eavan Mulligan.
Cinematographer: Colm Hogan
85 MINUTES, IRELAND, 2023, COLOUR
* PLEASE ARRIVE ON TIME AS THE FILM WILL START PROMPTLY AND LATECOMERS WILL NOT BE ADMITTED ONCE THE SCREENING HAS BEGUN*