Inflatable Bandstand (10 Year Crescendo)
AFTER, Leitrim/Roscommon, 2008
The above video documents the rise and fall of the bandstand at one of the five sites it visited
The Inflatable Bandstand was envisaged as a marker in time and a contemporary folly of sorts through which to frame particular sites across the rural counties of Leitrim and Roscommon which were touched often clumsily by the construction boom. The bandstand's colour was chosen carefully to mimic Irish developers overwhelming colour of choice - a kind of mute primrose yellow. In post boom Ireland it is not uncommon to see near empty or even unfinished housing estates book-ending towns and villages as they meet the countryside. They are very often painted in this yellow. Rumour has it the colour looks best against a grey Irish sky and is desirable for this reason.
People from the locality were invited to witness the five performances, where the bandstand would inflate and a specially commissioned musical piece by composer Ian Wilson was performed by saxophonist Cathal Roche. This composition took the development of the Irish Economy over the last ten years as its muse. After this performance the bandstand would epically fall and slowly deflate and be packed away to move on to the next town.
The Inflatable Bandstand was one of 5 artist-led interventions developed out of a one year engagement with international artist Alfredo Jaar through Leitrim and Roscommon Arts Offices TRADE Residency. It received funding both from the local arts offices and from an Arts Council Projects: Once Off Award. Together these works became AFTER which sought to respond to the unprecedented changes to a predominantly rural landscape as a consequence of the construction boom.
Ian Wilson's musical composition for the bandstand: BOOM!
For more see www.after.ie
