The Storyteller, an experimental arthouse film by Gráinne O’Carroll, blends physical theatre, music and poetry to create a mesmerising visual journey. Set against the contrasting backdrops of Cologne’s industrial spaces and Galway’s rugged Inis Óirr Island, the film depicts a stone statue awakening into a woman who dances through imaginary realms and impossible forms. This feature film transcends traditional storytelling, presenting wide-open landscapes and a rich tapestry of movement and emotion.
The work was created by Gráinne O´Carroll during residencies at Centro Moveo (Barcelona), Wandelwerk (Cologne) and Áras Éanna Arts Centre (County Galway), and filmed at the latter two with videographer and journalist Yves Itzek. O´Carroll unintentionally collected global mythologies connected to stone, like an Cailleach Béara who transcends time by transforming into landscapes, or Oisín who attempts to hoist upon his horse a dolmen-stone ultimately pulling himself to the ground and to his grave, as evaded-time falls upon him, or Sisyphus in in Greek mythology who’s condemned to push a rock that will always evade the summit and in Kerala, the outcast of seven “perfect” sons who pushes a boulder up a hill and laughs eternally as it rolls back down.
The film premiers in Cologne’s ‘Machbarschaft Petershof’, immediately followed by screenings in Wuppertal’s ‘Verteilungsstelle Kunst’, a historic estate being transformed into a model socio-culture and co-living space and a former co-operative supermarket turned art gallery, respectively, the film offers a unique cinematic experience in historically and culturally rich venues.
May 16th & 17th: Machbarschaft Petershof, Cologne
May 18th & 19th: Verteilungsstelle Kunst, Wuppertal (ticket link)
Tuilleadh eolaisGráinne O’Carroll is an artist, director and performer making work with a compulsion towards fine details of gesture, corporeal storytelling, uncanny characters, lively engagements and converted spaces. O´Carrolls work spans various interconnected domains, primarily focusing on performance, film, textiles and installation.
Taking a hands-on, experimental and personal approach in her works, which sees her in multiple roles from idea conception, to character design, performer, director and editor, her works often deal with embodiment – manifested through various ways – like creating surrealistic costumes that “manipulate” the wearer, converting a neglected industrial boiler room into a non-commercial experimental arts hub in Dublin’s “Silicone Docks” and thus investigating how transforming space also transforms the occupants. In 2020 she set out to create a body of work which strips back her embodiment-research to the bare essentials – in simple dress and bare space how deep can movement go.
A Bachelors in ´Textiles Art and Artefact´ and ´Art History´ at NCAD, a phase at Khib´s non-departmental fine art school in Bergen, a diploma in ´Physical Theatre and Dramatic Corporeal Mime´ at Centro Moveo represent O´Carroll´s formal adult education. Experiences, collaborators, relationships, residencies, projects and child-hood training are also paramount. In recent years she’s presented multi-media projects of various scales in Germany, France, Spain and Ireland, often gathering a unique ensemble of collaborators who co-develop the work.