Art and Self-Determination: A Reader

Art and Self-Determination: A Reader includes essays, poems and artistic responses to the theme of self-determination arising from a three-year research project funded by the Decade of Centenaries Programme. Taking as its starting point the centenary of the formation of the Irish Free State and the international movement towards self-determination post-World War One, this project focused on the role of art and artists against the backdrop of the changing map of Europe. Over three years, this project encompassed an international research conference, a summer school and reading group, a podcast IMMA Past Futures, artist commissions and a major exhibition, Self-Determination: A Global Perspective, October 2023–April 2024. Contributors to this publication – among them artists, scholars, researchers, historians, poets, activists and writers – were invited to reflect on the theme of self-determination from a range of perspectives across time and space.