Safe Harbour festival in Cork reveals details of visual arts programme

A new film by Dorothy Cross and a project involving inmates at Cork Prison feature in the visual arts strand of Sounds From A Safe Harbour

Wed, 03 Sep, 2025 - 11:50

Des O’Driscoll

The Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival has released details of its visual arts programme for the upcoming Cork event.

Though primarily seen as a music-based festival, the 2025 edition of the biennial gathering has expanded both its film and visual arts strands. Highlights include a screening of Dorothy Cross’s new film, Kinship Home, which documents the Cork artist’s project to return a mummified body back to its homeland in Egypt.

Also on display will be a piece from the Dillons Cross Project, involving female relatives of prisoners and ex-prisoners, created after a workshop with British writer Max Porter, one of the curators of the Safe Harbour festival.

British artist David Shillinglaw - one of the artists-in-residence at the festival – will work on a a large-scale mural at the Bakestone café on Perry Street, beginning on starting Monday, Sept 8.

Dorothy Cross and Safe Harbour director Mary Hickson in Egypt. Copyright: Dorothy Cross

Meanwhile, the film strand at the mid-September event includes the European premiere of Steve, a film adapted from Porter’s book Shy, starring Cillian Murphy, also one of the festival’s curating team.

Music events include a tribute to late Cork musician Talos (Eoin French), as well as concerts from the likes of Beth Orton, Ben Howard, and Rhiannon Giddens.

Highlights of the visual arts programme include:

Dorothy Cross, Kinship Home, The Observatory, UCC, Sat 13, 11-5pm, and Sun 14th 12-5pm, limited capacity, Duration 27 mins: The Cork artist’s film traces the story of returning a mummified body, long held in UCC’s archives, back to Egypt.
The Dillons Cross Project, We’re All In The Same Boat, Bakestone, Perry St, 10am-4pm, Sat 13 - Sun 14 Sept: A piece created from a visit by Max Porter to the project run by the Education Unit of Cork Prison. Some of the men in the prison made the base of the boat, while the women involved in the project made the sail.
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Interval VI, The River Lee Hotel, 8-14 Sept: Ailbhe Ní Bhriain is an Irish artist whose practice incorporates film, computer generated imagery, collage, tapestry, print and installation. Internal VI will hang in the river-side hotel for the duration of the festival.
Paul Gaffney, Approaching Stillness, Vaults, Lavit Gallery, 11 Sept – 18 Oct, Tues – Sun, 10.30am – 6pm: Video installation. Using extreme low-light video techniques, Gaffney captured the subtle movement of moonlight across the contours of a narrow valley in the Glen of the Downs nature reserve in Co Wicklow.
Yvonne McGuinness, The Well, CTC, Triskel Sat 13 and Sun 14 Sept, 10-5pm, Duration: approx 13 min: A three-screen video installation created at St Patricks Well, Clonmel. Previously, McGuinness had devised a live performance at the well inspired by the tale of Bridget Cleary, the Tipperary woman burned by her husband in 1897 for being a ‘witch’. Organisers state: “The artist draws on the universal symbol of the well as a place of ritual, mystic charge and an ancient symbol of female fertility and power.”