We chat to the collective behind Mend, a new pop-up space, in Terenure (D6W VW99).
What is mend? Can you tell us a bit about finding and repurposing the space?
We’re from close by areas so it’s a building that would have been well known to us. We’d watched it fall into disrepair over the last couple of years and creative people are always looking for space to use for whatever purpose. We contacted the owners and after some back and forth with us laying out our intention for the space, they agreed to let us use it temporarily. mend grew from this idea of realising the cultural value in the space for the community.
What are you doing there?
We wanted to make it a living space again, it’s hard to say exactly what we’re doing as it’s quite multi-purpose. You could say that we’re using the building and land as a sort of installation in itself. So far, we’ve only really made use of the front of the space, with a small gallery area to the right of the building and a large showroom to the left which houses a large scale mural. We were also delighted to have Pizza Truck and Up@Brews come on board to operate from the forecourt. We’d love to make use of the full site as we have loads of ideas for what could be done, but we’ll have to see what happens as there are a lot of considerations.
Are there other spaces you have your eye on?
We don’t really have our eyes on anything in particular, but we’ll always be open to other spaces.
How are you going about financing the ambitions of mend?
So far, we’ve financed mend from the little resources we could pool together, credit from local business owners and through the generous contribution of skills / know-how from friends, and friends of friends. There were weeks where we had to put the brakes on any progress while we waited to see how things unfolded. We’ve set up a donation form on our website. We’re hoping that if people support the idea, they’ll be willing to donate a few euro which we can use to invest back into the development of the space, and maybe others.
Can you tell us a bit about some of the artists associated with the space?
There’s a big list of people involved on some level and we’re really grateful to all of them. The bulk of the art is by KAMBO, whose ethos is based on the idea that the focus of the art should be on the aesthetic experience itself. Oran Utan who built the Dodecahedron’s, Dirty Dublin and Juliana Scodeler filming and photographing the process and Conan Wynne with the projection mapping. Further details are available on the website. We’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Vision Creative Studios, Duke Tree Services, Deans Windows, Smart Clean and Smithlock, who all helped us get things moving.
“There will always be opportunities for creatives to flourish in various spaces but we wouldn’t want to romanticise it.”
Do you feel there could be opportunities like after the crash in 2009 to allow creatives to flourish in spaces in the city?
There will always be opportunities for creatives to flourish in various spaces but we wouldn’t want to romanticise it. It’s tough work and you always know in the back of your mind that you are building something that will inevitably cease to exist.
What advice would you offer other collectives considering spaces in the city?
The only advice we’d give to anyone considering spaces in the city is to have fun with it and don’t let anyone get you down. Work hard, take your wins where you can get them and when you see your vision start to take some shape, it will be worth it. It was smiles all around last week when we saw the place packed out with kids playing in the sun. They’re the sort of things that make it worth it in the end. Hopefully being here will inspire the next generation.
