The Last Broadcast | Declan Clarke

Shot across Germany and Ireland including Fanore and Bohermore Cemetery in Galway – through film, photography and installation The Last Broadcast  looks at a number of historical incidents that connect the broadcasting history of Germany with that of Ireland and reveal the complex politicization of broadcasting technology during the European war. Included in the exhibition are examples of the Paris Aerial, German wireless sets from the 1930s, radios sets from both West and East Germany, and artefacts from the Irish Museum of Broadcasting that attest to the connections between the historical connections between German and Irish broadcasting service.

The Last Broadcast  exhibition centres on the history of electronic communication, its development over the last century, and how this legacy manifests itself currently in an unsteady, evolving Europe. As contemporary European generations continue to define nationhood within the confines of globalism, reflections between past and present are more significant than ever.

As in previous bodies of work, Declan Clarke combines narrative and documentary with elements of noir and espionage, accompanied by an installation that weaves props, photos, texts and historical exhibits into a network rich in association. The Last Broadcast  relays a complex, layered story of transition and transmission looking at surprising connections and historic parallels between a divided Ireland and an equally separated Germany, digging deep into the odd and overlooked past of European relations to scrutinize this history as a means of shedding light on the unfolding present.

Ultimately, The Last Broadcast  looks to the beginnings of electronic mass communication to examine the role of such technologies in defining and disrupting the relationship between states, democracy and citizens in Europe in the early 21st Century.

Declan Clarke, born Dublin, Ireland 1974 is an artist and filmmaker. He studied at NCAD, Dublin and Chelsea College of Art & Design, London. In 2016 he won the Jury Prize at the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. He represented Ireland on the PS1 MoMA International Residency Programme in 2002/03.

Recent solo exhibitions include The Last Broadcast, Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, 2022; The Museum of Broadcasting and Loneliness, Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, 2021; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, 2020; As I Get Older I Get More Afraid of the Dark, Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest, Romania, 2017; I Wanted to Share My Lover’s Fate, Farbvision, Berlin; Declan Clarke: Recent Film Work, Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA; The Hopeless End of a Great Dream, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; Geist Trilogie, Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway, (all 2016). Wreckage in May, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, Dublin, 2015; Group Portrait with Explosives, Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin, 2014. His films have been included in the FID-Marseille International Film Festival, in 2021, 2016 and 2013; the F/Stop Film Festival Leipzig, 2018; Tromsø International Film Festival in 2014; The New York Underground Film Festival, 2010.

His film Saturn and Beyond won the Georges De Beauregard International Award at FID Marseille 2021 and was included in the Official Selection for the International Competition of the St. Petersburg International Science Film Festival 2021 and in the international competition of the 2021 Punto da Vista International Documentary Film Festival of Navarra.