Mary-Jo Gilligan is based in Kilkenny, Ireland where she works through art and pedagogy independently and collaboratively. Work manifests in workshops, facilitation, live events, performance, installations, publishing and exhibitions.
Typically site specific and participatory, Gilligan's practice is deeply influenced by interests in public art, pedagogy, somatic practice and relational processes. The encounters and situations that are kindled for each audience explore how we relate to environments, bodies, architecture, and each other.
Since completing studies in the University of Ljubljana and the NCAD Dublin Gilligan has been commissioned by the following bodies; RGKSKSRG, Portlaoise County Council, Out Of Site, Culturstruction and Dublin City Council. She has been awarded residencies with Roscommon County Council, ID11 Netherlands, The Performance Corporation, VOID, Fís, Greenstar and a studio at the Irish Museum of Modern Art 2012/2013. Recent commissions and events include solo show Fathom and Span, Broadcast Gallery, DIT 2014, This Listening Field for Foaming at the Mouth, Phoenix Park, Dublin 2015, The Gathering Gates, Grand Canal Docks, Dublin 2016 and Pyramid Paths, AUT, New Zealand 2017. Gilligan recently completed an MA in Social Sculpture and Connected Practice at Oxford Brookes, UK.
The collaborative strands of Gilligan’s practice have included: collective Soft Blonde Moustache with whom she has exhibited in spaces such as Kevin Kavanagh gallery and the Royal Irish Academy; improvised singing group KWYER; and the cross-disciplinary research collective TERRAFORM. Most recent collaborations include ‘The Sound of Us’ Nordic LARP design at Larporatory, Vilnius 2016 and Talinn Larp Festival, Estonia 2017.
Gilligan is founder of the architectural research body Dublin City Agency for the Sensory Investigation of Constructed Space and has also co-curated site-specific projects with Parking Meter Arts (Transitopia) and The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, (Preponderance of the Small).
mary.j.gilligan@gmail.com