Understanding Ireland’s Housing Emergency through Data Stories, Public Knowledge, Art & Activism

Since independence, Dublin has endured repeated housing crises—from overcrowded tenements and poor sanitation to unaffordable homes, stigmatised public housing, speculative development, displacement and homelessness. Generations of Dubliners have suffered the consequences of political failure, perhaps nowhere more acutely than in Dublin 8. Evidence-based policy should address these crises, but has repeatedly failed. Do we also have a crisis of evidence?

Funded by the European Research Council, the Data Stories project at Maynooth University has spent the past four years investigating the stories, politics and power embedded in housing and planning data, examining how it is generated, circulated, governed and used.

Fictions, Frictions & Evictions, curated by Brendan Fox, confronts the data and systems shaping Ireland’s housing emergency and the human consequences hidden behind the numbers.

Working with artists in residence Augustine O’Donoghue, Mel Galley, Ella Harris & Hannah Mumby, Helen Shaw, Joan Somers Donnelly and Sean Borodale; project collaborators Conor McCabe and Clara McSweeney; and invited artists and activists Conor Burke, Abaigeal Meek & Jack Caffrey, the exhibition explores housing evidence through film, installation, image, speculative fiction, performance and activism.

Fictions, Frictions & Evictions officially opens on Friday, 16 October, at 6 pm at The Bank, 85 James Street, Dublin 8, D08 C2PR.

Exhibition opening times: 11 am–5.30 pm
Exhibition runs until: Saturday, 24 October

For listings of all events, see https://fictions-frictions-evictions.ie/

Image Credit – @the_liberties_sos

This project was selected through the Open Call (Open to All) as part of this year’s Open House Dublin programme.

Wheelchair accessible
Accessible Toilets
Assistance Dogs welcome