Clare Langan

**Clare Langan** (b. 1967) is an Irish artist and movie maker. She has shown her movies at many festivals and museums such as: _Kino der Kunst_ Festival, Munich (2020); _Physical Cinema Festival_, Reykjavik (2019); _Shaping Ireland,_ National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (2019); _The Best of Kino der Kunst,_ Dirimart, Istanbul (2018), _B3 Biennial of the Moving Image_, Frankfurt (2017), _Lyon Biennale_ (2007), and _Film Trilogy_, MoMA, New York (2004). Her movies have won many awards, including the _Prix Video Formes_ 2014, Clermont-Ferrand; the _Principle Prize_ at the _Oberhausen International Short Film Festival_ (2007) and she represented Ireland at the _25th Bienal de São Paolo_ (2002). In 2019, she was elected a member of Aosdána.

## Life and Work

Clare Langan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.  She completed a film workshop at NYU on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from The National University of Ireland. She has represented Ireland in many international Biennales. Her movies and photographs are in a number of international public and private collections including IMMA, The Arts Council of Ireland, The OPW, the Tony Podesta Private Collection, Washington, and the Hugo and Carla Brown Collection, UK.

For the last 20 years, Langan's movies deal with existential issues, where humanity and our relationship to the planet and climate have always been at the fore. Her first trilogy – _Forty Below_ (1999), _Too Dark for Night_ (2001), and _Glass Hour (_2002) – were shot in a drowned world; in the town being consumed by the desert, and across a molten volcanic landscape. With Langan's 2015 movie _Flight from the City_ made for the late Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson, the camera was turned from focus on the landscape, to focus on humanity itself. Since then the work has combined elements of choreography, landscape, performance with music being a crucial element of the works. _Flight from the City_ premiered at the _B3 Biennale of the Moving Image 2015_ in Frankfurt, before touring to Beijing and Shanghai. Jóhann Jóhannsson went on to use _Flight from the City_ to launch his 2016 album _Orphee._

Langan has made movies in Namibia, Iceland, at Skellig Michael, in the sky above the city of Dubai, and on the largely abandoned island of Montserrat. Langan started making movies in the late 1990s on 16mm film. She use hand-painted glass filters that workedlike eyelids. Later, she started using unusual film stock, including black and white infra-red.

## Exhibitions

Her movie _Metamorphosis (_2007) won the Principal Prize at the _Oberhausen International Short Film Festival,_ Germany. In 2007 it was exhibited at the Lyon Biennale; Houldsworth Gallery, London; _Loop,_ Barcelona; NCA Gallery, Tokyo; Pratt Art Gallery New York and the Miguel Marcos Gallery, Barcelona. Langan's _State of Suspension_ (2012) was shown in Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt, and The Rubicon Gallery, Dublin. She participated in the _Glen Dimplex Artists’ Award 2000_ at The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

_The Floating World_ premiered at Kino der Kunst in 2013, where it was really well received by the jury and the audience. The film went on to win the _Prix Videoformes 2014 | Conseil Général du Puy de Dôme_ at _VIDEOFORMES 2014,_ Clermont-Ferrand, France. It was exhibited as a 3-screen installation in VISUAL Center of Contemporary Art in 2015, and has since been exhibited in _Städtische Galerie_, Delmenhorst, Germany and _The Tom Tomson Art Gallery_, Canada, where she also exhibited _The Winter of 13 Storms,_ (2016/17). This movie was also exhibited at the B3 Biennal of the Moving Image Frankfurt 2017 curated by Kelly Gordon.

In 2017, she exhibited her movie _The Human Flock_ at Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford. The movie travelled to _Dirimart,_ Istanbul in July 2018, as part of _The Best of Kino der Kunst_ curated by Heinz Peter Schwerfel.

In 2019, she had retrospective show at The Dock, Carrig on Shannon featuring a number of recent and older works, including _The Winter of 13 Storms_, 2017 and _A Film Trilogy_ 1999-2002 from the IMMA Collection. It also included the 3-screen movie installation _River (2015),_ with a selection of music curated by Gary Sheehan, director of The National Concert Hall. In 2019, her work was also included in, _Of Music and Making_, Solstice, Navan; _Moving Women_, Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, _Shaping Ireland_, The National Gallery of Ireland, _The Gifts of Tony Podesta_, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington. Recent festivals include _Ritratti Di Poesia_, Poetry Festival, Rome alongside the poets Kate Tempest and Ingrid de Kok, and _Physical Cinema_ Festival, in Reykjavk. In 2020, her movie _The Heart of a Tree_ premiered at Kino Der Kunst, Munich. _The Heart of a Tree_ was then part of Lightmoves Film Festival, Limerick in 2021 before being part of Fondazione In Between Art Film in 2022.

In 2021, her movie_Flight from the City_ (2015) was screened as part of Artist Film International (AFI). In 2022, Langan's movie _River_ (2015) was part of Living Canvas, Dublin City's new cultural program by IPUT.

Recently, a photograph captured from her movie _The Heart of A Tree_ won The _Progressive Vision Curtin O' Donoghue Photography Prize_ as selected by The RHA Annual Exhibition 2022. She was also interviewed by John Kelly in _The Works Presents on RTÉ._  Most recent exhibitions include _At The Gates of Silent Memory_, Luan Gallery, _The New Dawn Fades_, Golden Thread Gallery, and _Elizium_ at Sarah Walker Gallery.

## Publications

**Photography books by the artist**
- 2023, _At The Gates of Silent Memory_, Luan Gallery
- 2013-15, _The Floating World_, Carlow: VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, 978-1-907537-12-7
- 2004, Essays by Patrick T. Murphy and Aidan Dunne, _A Film Trilogy_, Dublin: The Royal Academy
- 2002, _Too dark for night: Representing Ireland at the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo Brazil_, Dublin: Arts Council of Ireland
- _Forty Below_, Dublin: The Green On Red Gallery, 0-9524564-8-6

**Photography books with contribution by the artist**

- 2021, In Conversation with Cristin Leach, Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith (ed.), _And Now With Feeling_, Winter Papers, Vol.7, Dublin: Arts Council of Ireland, Curlew Editions, 978-0-9933029-6-1
- 2018, Texts by Jack Rasmussen, Klaus Ottmann, Susan Fisher Sterling, Kathryn Wat, _The Gifts of Tony Podesta_, American University Museum, 978-1-7321553-2-9
- 2011, Noel Kelly and Sean Kissane, _Creative Ireland: The Visual Arts, Arts Council of Ireland_, 978-1-907683-11-4
- 2010, Busan Biennale, Busan Museum of Art, Gwangalli Beach, 2010
- 2009, _Sounds & Visions_: _Artists’ Films and Videos from Europe_, The Last Decade, Milano, Silvana Editoriale
- 2008, _Representing Art in Ireland,_ Cork, The Fenton Gallery, 978-0-9544843-8-5
- 2008, Singapore Biennale, Singapore, National Arts Council Singapore, 978-981-08-1684-1
- 2009, _Paysage – Video: Dialogue avec les collections_ #2, 978-2-905985-69-9
- 2005, _World Without End_, Australian Centre for Moving Image, Australia, 1-920805-11-7
- 2005, Irish Museum of Modern Art: The Collection, 1-903811-48-1
- 2002, Catalogue, _Shimmering Substance_, Bristol, Arnolfini, 0-907738-71-0
- 2022, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art Ltd, 0-953671-4-5

## Awards

- 2022, Winner of The Progressive Vision Curtin O’ Donoghue Photography Prize, RHA Dublin
- 2019, Elected as a member of Aosdana, The Arts Council Ireland
- 2017, Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from The National University of Ireland
- 2014, Prix Videoformes, Conseil Général du Puy de Dôme at VIDEOFORMES, Clermont-Ferrand
- 2007, Premier Prize, Oberhausen International Film Festival, Germany
- 1992, Fulbright Scholarship to attend NYU Film New York
- 1994 - Present, Numerous Film Project Funding, Visual Arts Bursaries from The Arts Council of Ireland & The Irish Film Board, Ireland

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Clare Langan
- **birth date**: ̺
- **occupation**: Filmmaker, visual artist
- **years active**: 1992-present
- **website**: https://www.clarelangan.com/