An evening of re-stagings and improvised logics,Terrapolis is a sequence of four live performances that embraces a chimera of lands, languages, histories, and faltering props. The live works – by Léann Herlihy, Sam Keogh, Bea McMahon, and Eoghan Ryan – are navigated and bridged by artist Venus Patel as Daisy: Prophet of the Apocalypse, acting as compère extraordinaire. Presented as part of the exhibition Staying with the Trouble, the works unfold for one-night only, reverberating across IMMA’s Great Hall, Baroque Chapel and Courtyard.

Both the exhibition and the performance night, and their titles, are inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s seminal work and feature contemporary Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time. Pushing against social norms, these practices challenge us and attempt to make sense of the present, questioning interspecies relationships, ideas of transformation, and renewal. The artworks challenge human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.

Following Haraway’s propositions such as “Making Kin”, “Composting” and “Sowing Worlds”, IMMA invites audiences to rethink their connections with humans, animals, and ecosystems. Other propositions include “Critters”, emphasising the agency of non-human life, while “Techno-Apocalypse” critiques dystopian views on technology, proposing a more nuanced, interconnected future.

Rather than passive spectators, the audience become active participants, encouraged to confront the complexities of our time with creativity and care. Through Haraway’s “tentacular thinking”, the works foster new ways of seeing and imagining, offering an invitation to collectively sow the seeds for a just and interconnected world.

Running in parallel with Terrapolis, film and moving image works by Marion Bergin, Duncan Campbell and Sarah Clancy/Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation have an extended evening screening as part of Living Canvas at IMMA, on the museum’s Front Lawn.