Mary Moynihan-No More War
Artist: Mary Moynihan
Medium: Video
No More War is written and directed by Mary Moynihan and performed by Michelle Costello as Käthe Kollwitz.
This performance art film is inspired by a creative response to the life and work of German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) who spoke out against war and tyranny through her work and actions. The film is a creative re-imagining of the achingly powerful life story of the artist.
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) née Schmidt was born in the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 8 July in 1867, Käthe Kollwitz established herself in an art world dominated by men by developing an aesthetic vision centered on women and the working class. Her representations of women, including her frequent self-portraits, effectively communicated her subjects’ predicaments during a period when women were still negotiating ways to represent themselves in the arts.
Käthe worked with paintings, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class. Käthe lost her youngest son Peter in WWI and her grandson in WWII. While she never got over the death of her son, after his death, she became a pacifist and went on to use her art to speak out against war. Her ‘no more war’ art posters became powerful symbols of peace that are used to this day.
© Mary Moynihan 2020
Biography
Mary Moynihan (she/her), MA, is an award-winning writer, director, theatre and film-maker, an interdisciplinary artist and Artistic Director of Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality.
Mary is Artistic Curator for the annual Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival implemented by Smashing Times and Front Line Defenders in partnership with organisations including Amnesty International, Fighting Words, NWCI, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Poetry Ireland. The aim of the festival is to showcase and highlight the extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts and artists in promoting human rights today.
Mary specialises in transformative arts practice, using interdisciplinary, socially-engaged arts practice to promote equality, human rights, gender equality, diversity and peace, developing cutting edge arts-based projects with a range of organisations in Ireland, Northern Ireland and across Europe. The work takes place at local, national and international levels, connecting citizens to the arts, human rights, climate justice, gender equality and peace.
Mary’s work is underpinned by a rights-based approach and a commitment to artistic excellence and social engagement. Mary has a particular focus on using historical memory in her artistic practice as inspiration for the creation of original artworks across a range of mediums, remembering stories of ordinary yet powerful women and men from history and today who stood up for the rights of others.
As Artistic Director of Smashing Times, Mary was awarded the Business to Art Special Judges Daa Arts Award at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and was awarded a GSK Ireland Impact Award, a Dublin Bus Community Spirit Award, and a National Lottery Good Cause Award. In April 2021, Acting for the Future - Creative Arts for Health and Well-being Hub, a project designed and led by Mary Moynihan, won the prestigious #ArtsAgainstCovid award, from the Arts in Health International Foundation. Company patrons of Smashing Times are First Lady Sabina Coyne Higgins, Senator Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House, Ger Ryan, actor and Tim Pat Coogan, writer and historian. Founding patrons were writers Maeve Binchy and Brian Friel.
