As part of the festival's this year's guest-country section, FILMKUNSTFEST MV proudly presents a remarkable exhibition of selected photographs taken by Irish photographer Derek Speirs. His works are regularly published by newspapers and magazines both in Ireland and abroad and presented in photo exhibitions addressing social issues. 

Derek Speirs on this exhibition:

„This selection of 40 black-and-white pictures, taken of children in their respective social environment in the 1980s and 1990s, comprises photographs with which I try to make these children heard. The social, poiltical and economic situations are in my centre of attention as a professional photographer since the last 1970s, for instance the circumstances of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the persistent poverty in the midst of the zones of urban life, but also the situation of the Irish travellers, called "Pavees". A loop showing colour photographs depicts the Ireland where the children of the black-and-white pictures live today.“

Venue: DEZERNAT 5 - Galerie für aktuelle Kunst | Franz-Mehring-Straße 11 | 19053 Schwerin

Vernissage: May 1st, 2019 from 6.00 pm
Period of exhibition: May 1st to 31st, 2019

Derek Speirs, born in Dublin in 1952, began his professional career as a photographer in London after his studies in 1977 working with the Report co-operative of photographers with the founder of Report, Simon Guttmann. In 1978, he returned to Dublin and established an agency along similar lines also operating under the name of Report and specialising in the coverage of politics, current affairs, theatre and the arts, the activities of the labour movement and collaborative work with NGOs and marginalised groups. For a period in 1978 and 1979 he taught in the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. 1995, 1998 and 2000, Derek Speirs worked in Africa, Central America and Cambodia. From 2007, he has worked with Young Social Innovators documenting their social projects.

EXHIBITIONS 

"SPEIRS AT LARGE" (1988)
Toured throughout Ireland and East Berlin (Ireland in the 1980 and early 1990s)

"PAVEE PICTURES" (1989)
A collaboration with DTEDG/Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre

"YESTERDAY & TO-DAY" (1993)
Exhibition of contemporary/complimentary photos with photos from the Father Browne collection - sponsored by Ark Life

"AT WORK" (1994)
Irish Museum of Modern Art, an exhibition dealing with the changing nature of work, with a commentary by writer Gene Kerrigan

"LAST DAYS" (2007)
Triskel Arts Centre, The End of Carpets at Youghal; a collaboration with artist Marcella Reardon

LITERATURE 

"PAVEE PICTURES" (1990) and "30 Years of Pavee Point" (2015)

"GOOD BYE TO ALL THAT" (1992): complimentary photos and text by Gene Kerrigan dealing with the Ireland and career of Charles Haughey