The work of Irish and international artists, across a range of disciplines will be showcased at this year’s Clifden Arts Festival which runs from September 17-28. The theme of this year’s festival is Journey and it will be explored in work that’s personal, political and poetic, with painting, performance, photography and film all on display.

The headline exhibition from Stoney Road Press will open on Tuesday, September 16, in the Station House Museum. One of Ireland’s most distinguished fine art print studios, Stoney Road Press will present a survey of collaborations spanning over 20 years, featuring work by artists such as Louis le Brocquy, Diana Copperwhite, Alice Maher, Donald Teskey and Anne Madden.

This exhibition brings together a body of Irish art that is rarely seen in one place, as it celebrates the expressive power of print.

Another festival highlight will be a video art installation featuring works by three artists; Vardit Goldner, Etaoin Melville, and Marco Balbi Dipalma.

In Swimming Lesson, Israeli artist Vardit Goldner creates a surreal yet deeply political mockumentary, in which a group of Bedouin girls are being taught to swim, except this is in a pool with no water. The scene seems absurd, even comical initially, but she soon reveals the stark reality of systemic exclusion. More than 200,000 Arab-Bedouins live in the Negev region of Israel, where they have access to just one public swimming pool and are broadly barred from Jewish-operated facilities. Through her lens, Goldner reveals how something as basic as learning to swim is a metaphor for broader marginalisation. The film also looks to a future of global water scarcity – blurring present-day injustice with the world’s growing environmental crisis.

Silent Voices from West Cork-based artist Etaoin Melville is a lyrical meditation on womanhood, ancestry and the passing of time, set against the rhythm of the Atlantic Ocean.

Trasfigurazione from Italian performer Marco Balbi Dipalma is a self-portrait that explores transformation through Catholic iconography and existential ritual.

Elsewhere, a site-specific performance In Ritual: Anointing by Kari Cahill will invite audiences into a fire-centred ceremonial experience, exploring the alchemy of land, body and belief, while Synaptic Space (Olivia Hassett and Rachel Macmanus) will present Push Pull; The Dance of Control, a visceral, humorous and defiant performance examining the complexities of ageing.

Multi-award-winning photographer Peter Gordon will present a new body of Irish-themed work that captures the fleeting beauty of landscape.

These highlights will be joined by over 40 exhibitions throughout Clifden and the surrounding area that will feature work by Eoin O’Malley, Leah Beggs, Adele Walsh and others. From etchings and tapestries to experimental sculpture and contemporary glass, the aim is to allow viewers to pause, reflect and journey through many different artistic perspectives.

“I wanted to create space for as many diverse artistic voices as Clifden could hold,” says the festival’s Visual Arts Curator Clare Henderson. “Every artist brings a unique story—and I’m deeply grateful to the local community who helped make space for those stories to be seen and heard.”

For  more information and tickets visit: www.clifdenartsfestival.ie

Pictured: Swimming Lesson by Vardit Goldner captures a group of Bedouin girls being taught to swim in a waterless ‘pool’ in Israel’s Negev region. Bedouin people who live there are not allowed to access swimming pools used by Jewish people.