**ANNOUNCEMENT** DDF wins GPO: Witness History Comission!

We've got some very exciting news to share...

We are delighted to announce that Dublin Dance Festival has been awarded a GPO: Witness History Public Art Commission for Embodied - a series of six new dance solos by female choreographers based in Ireland.

Through an open call earlier this year, An Post invited individuals and organisations across the arts to respond to the 1916 Proclamation and how it resonates today. Embodied is a series of ‘physical proclamations’ by choreographers Jazmín Chiodi, Sibéal Davitt, junk ensemble (Jessica Kennedy & Megan Kennedy), Liv O’Donoghue, Jessie Keenan and Emma O’Kane, that will be performed in the GPO in 2016. The project will be directed by leading Irish choreographer Liz Roche. Photographer Luca Truffarelli will document the work for an exhibition, which will be presented during Dublin Dance Festival in May 2016.

Benjamin Perchet, Director of Dublin Dance Festival said: “We are honoured and excited that Dance has been given the opportunity to respond to this seminal moment. We are delighted that the selected female artists will present their unique, contrasting and contemporary interpretations of the Proclamation to a diverse audience. We would like to thank the team at An Post and the GPO: Witness History Exhibition Centre for this important public art commission.”

Dublin Dance Festival is one of two recipients of the GPO: Witness History Public Art Commissions, along with visual artists Alanna O’Kelly, Brian Hand and Orla Ryan, who will collaborate to produce a contemporary art work titled Stormy Petrel/Guairdeall.

Barney Whelan, Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs at An Post said “The commissions now move into the development phase and we look forward to sharing them with visitors to our new GPO: Witness History Centre from April next year”.

GPO: Witness History, currently under construction in the eastern courtyard of Dublin’s GPO, will be an engaging, interactive visitor attraction bringing history to life through technology, video and authentic artefacts.

Photo credits: Luca Truffarelli and Ros Kavanagh for CoisCéim Dance Theatre's 'Missing'.

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