âLife happens between our plans,â says Elena Cristofanon, whose latest project,
Contatto, shares the words and stories of a new generation of artists in Ireland. For centuries, the Irish experience of multiculturalism mostly took place abroad. Sometimes we assimilated; on other occasions we established deliberately green enclaves. But it has never been binary: all contact generates change, from subtle to seismic.
Similarly, culture is never static. Even were it possible (never mind anything approaching desirable) to remain culturally isolated, people, custom and belief evolve and shift. Each generation learns from and reacts to the ones that came before, a process that is enriched by different viewpoints, not least because they enable one to see life from new angles.