SONIA'S TREES 2021
No Longer Available
LETIZIA LOPREIATO
August 7th – 29th 2021
Please see description below for more details and for a series of events in various locations as part of “Sonia’s Tree’s” creative documentary exhibition and of the art-based awareness campaign for eco-sustainability that Letizia Lopreiato has organised, between Waterford and Dublin:
Two women, the artist and her protagonist, mirroring each other, in the strength, the faith in their dreams of love, of a heart-centred life, and of real freedom for our spirit, in the resilience built whilst called to face all challenges in life … Just like the native seeds of Ireland teach us … In a moment in time when humanity seems to be acting like there is no choice, like the story is already written, Sonia’s Trees is a tale to remind us all that happiness is a choice and all stories can be rewritten, that all experiences can and must be shared again and again, for their power lays in the heart of the ones who choose to listen, listen to themselves and to one another … Because we do have a choice and our actions, our thoughts, our beliefs do matter. The act of feeling can be painful, a careless life might be easier, for “Hope and Fear are twin Destinies” indeed, but the choice to live a hopeless life, thinking we had no way to change the course of our future, that we are just passing through, only to not feel hurt … It is that selfish act that humanity can’t afford any longer, because it is a choice that leaves not only our physical and psychological environment, but also the ones of who love us, to pay the price, for that happiness … That we didn’t choose.
Letizia Lopreiato
About this event
This is the story of a Dublin family who found in the West of Ireland via the Copper Coast of Waterford County, and the native trees of these landscapes, the call for a sustainable future.
A creative documentary including the media of 35mm photography, poetry and spoken word, as well as Super 8 moving image, that evolved into a two months awareness campaign, exploring reforestation and eco-sustainability, through Ireland’s native seeds.
Letizia has organised a series of events for the launch of the project this summer as part of the Photo Ireland Festival 2021 Open Program, of which a launch talk on July 22nd via Zoom for accessibility, has been the starting point. The recording of the launch talk has been shared by Letizia with the 106 registered attendees of the talk, and it is now live on the artist’s Instagram account for replay: instagram.com/letizia_lety_lopreiato/
The artist’s via her visual-poetry project has created an awareness art – campaign around the topic of Ireland’s reforestation with its native trees, taking place between July and August 2021, in both Dublin and Waterford.
“Sonia’s Trees – Seeds, Trees and The Politics of Food in Ireland” was the launch talk of Letizia Lopreiato’s new creative documentary photography project entitled “Sonia’s Trees”, which includes the artist’s 35 mm. photography, Super 8 film moving image, and her poetry and spoken word performance.
“Sonia’s Trees” (2018-2021) is shot on 35mm film both BW and Color and Super 8 moving image, between County Clare and the Copper Coast of County Waterford in Ireland. The project explores the City-Country life duality in Ireland, and its connection with eco-sustainability, the politics of food in the country, and Ireland’s reforestation vision and mission using native trees and seeds.
This body of work covers the life-changing series of events that occurred over the past three years in the life of one of the artist’s dearest friends from Dublin, Sonia McGuirk. She is a single mother who, with her two kids, relocated from the city of Dublin to the West of Ireland, via the Copper Coast in County Waterford, looking for a more sustainable and connected lifestyle for herself and her family.
EVENTS IN WATERFORD
Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Waterford – August 7th to August 11th 2021 (the show will then move from the Gallery’s garden space to GOMA’s indoor workspace where the artist is residing during the month of August, available to see from August 11th until August 29th 2021).
This exhibition will showcase the final results of artist Letizia Lopreiato’s summer residency at GOMA, between July and August 2021, and it represents a section of her three year documentary journey.
Through black & white and colour landscape photography, portraiture and Super8 films, the artist poetically pays tribute to the healing experience that the year 2020/2021 has represented for her documentary protagonist Sonia McGuirk, and her life by the Copper Coast in County Waterford.
In Dublin between July 22nd and August 31st 2021, please see list of locations for this photography trail the artist has organised to launch this art-based awareness campaign, thanks to this project’s four patrons.
– The County Clare part of the protagonist’s life journey will be showcased in locations across Dublin between August 11th and August 30th, by creating a photography trail for the audience to experience.