IN early September, a light aircraft will cross the Dublin sky, trailing a banner bearing the words "Insult The State". Meanwhile, below in a tranquil spot, a man will seat himself on a park bench and slip his head inside a wooden box; across town, outside City Hall, a glass fronted case will offer shelter for a golden calf, built from butter.
Intimations of these strange days to come were delivered in Dublin this, weekend, when the Sculptors Society of Ireland announced the shortlist for "Ireland and Europe".
The incendiary skywriting of Sean Taylor, the bench performance by Kevin F. Gray and Aaron Fowler's butter calf will be only three of 20 such contributions to a show that its organisers describe as "the largest multi media visual arts event ever to be held in Dublin".
The other Irish, or Irish based artists whose projects have been selected are Pauline Agnew, Lorraine Whelan, Nico Nicolaou, Fergus Kelly, Alan Phelan, Daniel Jewsbury and the team of Aine Nic Giolla Coda and Michael Minnis, who will work collaboratively.
The show will feature temporary works, in media including sound, light and performance, in public spaces throughout the city. The core location for the show, however, will be the Iveagh Gardens, and of the Irish artists shortlisted, five have been chosen for projects at the gardens.
Greek born Nicolaou will hang an enormous fishing net filled with blank, empty cardboard boxes from a tree there, collaborating artists Aine Nic Giolla Coda and Michael Minnis will reunite two statues separated when a wall was built through a section of the gardens, while Alan Phelan's project sees the artist heading for the archery pit, where, lover the course of the exhibition, he will mark out a series of sports courts and pitches in chalk, each is to be accompanied by a notice prohibiting games.
The announcement of the selected projects is the beginning of a complex process leading up to the event's final opening date. The exhibition's innovative format envisages that the Irish artists will now choose ten further artists from continental Europe.
These artists will each be invited to contribute a work or project of their own to the "Ireland and Europe". The show will run from September 4th to October 16th this year.