Off the Connemara coast, a 6th–century cyclopean stone chapel clings to an uninhabited island known as St. MacDara.
On the 16th of July each year [the opening day of GIAF 2018], a pilgrimage is made to the island on a flotilla of boats for a celebration of mass and the blessing of boats.
Working within Niall McLaughlin’s and Michiko Sumi’s Unit 17 at the Bartlett School of Architecture, students constructed Ghost Chapel, a web–like structural negative of the existing St. MacDara’s Chapel, solidifying the gaps of the drystone construction whilst letting light fill the space where the stones should be.
Ghost Chapel will sit on Galway’s famous Claddagh Basin with the accompanying exhibition Taking Time on show within the Festival Hub at the Festival Gallery.
Backstage at the Festival 22 July, 2pm
Gallery talk with Niall McLaughlin, architect Festival Gallery, Market Street