POINTS OF CONTACT
Meeting in the middle explains this offsite residency reuniting Saharawi artist Mohamed Sleiman Labat and Irish artist Bryan Gerard Duffy after 8 years apart, where they have developed a new body of work in the “neutral” location of Spain i.e. the former Colonizer. They titled this encounter “Points of Contact”, which reflects Irelands hidden relationship with Western Sahara and their desire to find flexible and creative ways of collaboration. Their work exposes how natural resources and natural phenomena from Western Sahara impacts the Irish landscape through phosphate exploitation and desert sandstorms.
Labat’s expansive art making processes are influenced by methods in desert gardening, nomadic ways of life while interrogating the Global North’s extraction of resources from the Global South. By embracing art and science, Duffy’s work explores Irish waterways, microscopic plant samples and Irish river folklore, through an undercurrent of archive revealing the damage caused by algae blooms and fertilizer pollution. All of which is contributing to the destruction of an already fragile Global Ecosystem.
While Labat’s work specifically questions the origins and actions of these corporate exploitations from the sands, Duffy’s work tracks the impact of such exploitations on the waters. Their practices become aligned around points of contact between the Global South and Global North while finding methods of exchange through performances, art interventions and cultivating nature / resourcefulness / body as material. This amalgamation of Saharawi nomadic culture and Irish agricultural heritage confronts a post-colonial narrative in the midst of a climate crisis.
During their time on this offsite residency in Spain, they have solidified their working partnership around finding a new art collective of Saharawi – Irish creatives. This collective, in its infancy, is grounded in authentic grassroots processes and shared experiences while aiming to evolve methods of balanced engagements and transparent dialogues.
Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Mohamed Sleiman Labat is a filmmaker and artist from Western Sahara. He is the founder of MOTIF Art Studios in Tindouf, Algeria. Labat has exhibited internationally and has been the recipient of multiple awards, grants and residencies including John M. Anderson Lecture Series Award, PennState University, PA, USA (2025), S+T+ARTS Prize Africa (EU Award of Distinction) Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2024), Prince Claus Fund Mentorship Award (Cultural & Artists Responses to the Environmental Crisis) (2024), Luleá Biennial, Sweden (2024), Voices 2024, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea (2024), Helsinki Biennial, Finland (2023), Endless Together with Matthew Galloway, Te Tuhi Gallery, Aotearoa, New Zealand (2023), Saari Residence by Kone Foundation, Perpetuum Mobile (PM) Finland (2020).
Bryan Gerard Duffy
Bryan Gerard Duffy is an Irish award-winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. He has exhibited his work extensively across Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and the Middle East. Recent solo and group shows include ‘Hung Out Dry’ Ballina Arts Centre, Ireland (2025), ‘Idle Walls’ Custom House Studios and Gallery, Westport, Ireland (2024), and Gallery of Modern Art, Waterford, Ireland (2024), NÖDOK 2024, Dokumentationszentrum für moderne Kunst Niederösterreich, Lower Austria (2024). Duffy was the recipient of the PLATFORM 31 award (2022) from Local Arts Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland; the Mayo County Council Tyrone Guthrie Residency Award (2022); and the recipient of the Bolay Residency Award, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Ireland (2020). Awards for his films include being shortlisted for the Best Irish Human Rights Short Documentary with “Sumud, Everyday Resistance” at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) awards (2016); Best Human Rights film at the Wexford Documentary Film Festival (2021), while receiving Bronze Medal Award at the Global Independent Film Awards for his film “Delivery” (2021)
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