Having the Cabinet for lunch

Lunchtime had a political flavour this week, and the menu included a Taoiseach, two Government Ministers, and a high-profile former Taoiseach (no, not Charlie). At the Clarence Hotel on Wednesday, Bertie Ahern lunched to launch the Nissan Art Project 1997, and he was joined by various members of the art community, including Declan MacGonagle, director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Oliver Dowling of the Arts Council, Harold Fish from the British Council, IMMA board member Gordon Lambert, Fiach Mac Conghail, director of the Project Arts Centre, Dublin Theatre Festival director Tony O Dalaigh, and Aileen Keogh of Arthouse.

The Art Project is a new competition designed to promote art in the public domain, and Nissan has teamed up with the museum and has given £40,000 to cover the cost of this year's project. The winning entry came from artists Frances Hegarty and Andrew Stones, who created nine "manifestations" of Molly Bloom's monologues in pink neon at various locations around the city centre. Just what Dublin needs - more neon.

The Taoiseach was delighted the inaugural project was set in such handy locations as City Hall, Ormond Quay, Trinity College and the Clarence, and that it was based on the works of James Joyce. He acknowledged the judging panel of Sandra Percival, director of the Public Art Development Trust in London, Fumio Nanjo, the Japanese curator and critic, Ciaran Benson, chairman of the Arts Council, Dublin City architect Jim Barrett and Brenda McParland, curator of exhibitions at the IMMA. Other guests included artists Alannah O'Kelly, Alice Maher and Finola Jones, German ambassador Horst Pakowski, Sean Sweeney of the James Joyce estate Telecom Eireann chairman Ron Bolger, and photographer Amelia Stein. The previous evening, the IMMA opened its own showcase of six young international artists, and the grounds of the museum rang to the sounds of extraterrestrial signals, broken record-players and bottles filled with water. Viewing the works of Ceal Floyer, Ellen Gallagher, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing and Yukinori Yanagi were various London art dealers and gallery owners, including Nicholas Longsdail from the Lisson Gallery and Margot Heller from the Anthony d'Offay Gallery.