CoMUSEUM International Conference

British Council Ireland were delighted to support three delegates, Seán Doran, Liam Browne and Gülen Güler, from the ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) project, to take part in the conference. On Wednesday, December 4, and Thursday, December 5, at the Benaki Museum/Pireos 138 in Athens, and on Friday, December 6, at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, delegates interacted with cultural and creative professionals, representatives of civil society, and artists in a meeting that explores and deepens the understanding of culture and creativity. See below for bios on each delegate.

Seán Doran and Liam Browne of Arts Over Borders are the originators of the project and filmmaker Gülen Güler, based in Turkey, was UEO's Istanbul city partner. The delegates also delivered a special masterclass during the conference on 5 December 2024 on the findings from UEO. See below for more information. 

As part of their delegation experience, British Council Ireland's three delegates also presented the findings of the ULYSSES European Odyssey project in a masterclass called ULYSSES European Odyssey 2022-2024: themes of justice for daily life on 5 December at the Benaki Museum, Athens. During the masterclass, Seán, Liam and Gülen discussed how the the project has engaged with issues around justice and community and on how we interpret, experience and seek justice in diverse contexts – whether within families, workplaces, communities, streets or public spaces. Find out more about the masterclass here.  

Sean Doran, Co-Creator/Producer ULYSSES European Odyssey (Ireland)

Seán Doran is an artistic producer, in international multi-arts festivals and events. His productions have spanned several countries and two continents in opera, literature, visual arts and the performing arts.  Formerly the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2003-2006), he is currently Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Arts Over Borders (Ireland) and Co-Director of the ideas and programming consultancy DoranBrowne (London).

In the past decade, Seán Doran co-curated with his long-time artistic partner, Liam Browne, Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival (2017) delivering thirteen stand-out world premiere events to the 13 iconic album tracks (The Times accorded his Mark Morris Pepperland dance commission as the 2017 Show of the Year).  In Ireland from 2012, he has founded the world’s exclusive multi-arts festivals celebrating Irish writers Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett (Happy Days), Brian Friel (Lughnasa FrielFest) and Oscar Wilde (A Wilde Weekend by Lough Ernest) and Northern Ireland’s first international multi-arts festivals since 1962.

As Artistic Director, Seán Doran curated both the largest and longest running multi-arts festivals in Ireland (Belfast, 1997 & 1998) and Australia (Perth, 2000-2003) and the largest ever literature festival staged in the world, the UK Year of Literature & Writing 1995. In 2001, the Australian Government awarded Seán its Centenary Medal and in 2017 Ulster University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts.

Liam Browne, Co-Creator/Producer, ULYSSES European Odyssey (Ireland)

Liam Browne was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. His first novel, The Emigrant’s Farewell, was published by Bloomsbury. He is a former Literature Officer at the South Bank Centre in London, Literature Programmer of the Brighton Festival and Programme Director of the International Literature Festival Dublin.

Under the arts consultancy, DoranBrowne, he conceived and co-curated, with Seán Doran, Sgt. Pepper at 50 Heading for Home (Liverpool, 2017), the first year of the new Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 12 months 12 books (Bellaghy, Co. Derry, 2016/2017) and The Shape of Things to Come in Folkestone (2019).

Gülen Güler, Artist, ULYSSES European Odyssey, Turkey

Gülen Güler, leveraging her background in Education, Sociology and Cultural Heritage Studies, founded “Yalan Dünya Films” in 2002, following a career in various educational capacities. As a visionary producer, she has cultivated a portfolio of contemporary video installation works, which have garnered international acclaim and been exhibited in prestigious museums worldwide. Notable among these achievements is her work “Küba,” which was honored with the distinguished Carnegie Prize. Her creative repertoire encompasses an array of award-winning feature films and documentaries, some of which were realized through collaborative partnerships with European Union countries. Her work also extended to television, where she produced a political satire series.

Under her leadership, Yalan Dünya Films has evolved into a dynamic cultural nexus, nurturing emerging artistic talent both domestically and internationally. The company serves as a curator of European cinema, orchestrating film screenings and cultural events throughout Turkey’s small towns, villages, and cultural institutions. As well as providing consultancy and support to grassroots film festivals and cultural initiatives across Turkey. Her emphasis to cross-cultural artistic exchange in her productions were further realized through her role as Istanbul’s city partner for Ulysses European Odyssey, an initiative supported by Creative Europe. She continues studying and writing children’s books.

ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) was an epic project which took place from 2022-2024 across 18 cities in 16 countries, producing artistic responses in public spaces to social and cultural themes identified in the 18 episodes of James Joyce’s Ulysses. At the same time, a cycle of 18 public symposia were held in each city to produce 309 questions aimed at creating a new arts and society charter for Europe. In June 2024, for Episode 17 of the project, ULYSSES European Odyssey came to Dublin for the Grand Arts and Society Symposium (GASS), which was held in the Long Room Hub of Trinity College Dublin. Find out more about the project and our partnership on the Dublin leg of the journey here.

The 13th CoMUSEUM International Conference entitled Museums and Justice was held in Athens and Thessaloniki from 6-8 December 2023. The Conference focused on justice and representation: being fair within and through museums and cultural organizations. Included in the discussion was the degree to which DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) principles are being considered or applied internally in cultural organizations in terms of employment, governance and programming, and how in turn this process, or lack of, affects cultural action around the world. 

The 13th CoMUSEUM International Conference was held on December 6-7, 2023 at the Benaki Museum/Pireos 138 in Athens, and on December 8 in Thessaloniki, Greece. 

British Council Ireland are delighted to be supporting the mobility of one of the conference speakers this year, Annie Fletcher.

About Annie Fletcher

Annie Fletcher is currently Director of IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art). Previously she was Chief Curator at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and a tutor at de Appel, Amsterdam, the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and the Design Academy Eindhoven.  She was co-founder and co-director of the rolling curatorial platform If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution with Frederique Bergholtz and Tanja Elstgeest (2005-10).

In 2012, she was Curator of Ireland’s Contemporary Art biennale EVA International and is regularly called upon to sit on International juries, including the 2019 Preis der Nationalgalerie, Berlin; the 2016 Irish Pavilion at Venice; the 2015 Köler Prize, Estonia; the 2014 Turner Prize, UK; the 2013 Leopold Bloom Art Award, Hungary; and the 2011 BC21 Art Award, Austria.