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Her background as an architect interested in the post-boom Limerick landscape informs the choices curator Elizabeth Hatz has made for a fascinating mix of shows at this year’s EV+A, writes AIDAN DUNNE

EV+A IS IRELAND’S foremost annual international exhibition of contemporary art. It is selected from open submission and, every other year, the guest curator is also asked to invite artists to participate. This is one of those years, and the curator is Elizabeth Hatz. It is, she says, the first time she’s ever taken on something like this, but when she got the phone call she didn’t even pause before saying yes. It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. So it was that she found herself going through more than 600 submissions late last November and wondering if she’d bitten off more than she could chew.