Gerard Byrne
In this episode Ciarán meets visual artist Gerard Byrne who teaches at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. The conversation rambles from Brecht to Beckett and Kasper König. We hear about the Städelschule and its place as one of the most influential art schools in Germany, and that having a collection of internationally renowned colleagues makes it an exciting place to work. Gerard and Ciarán chat about Gerard not being a natural Germano-phile, but perhaps still with an early appreciation for Kraftwerk, as general left-field entity, but he does understand Germany as having a central role in the development of contemporary arts in the 20th Century. They wonder at the fact that visual art enjoys a more prominent place in Germany than in Ireland and the various socio-political reasons behind that, and Dokumenta in Kassel as a celebration of the importance of art in Germany, where even the taxi drivers want to talk about art.