Deirdre O’Mahony, artiste et archéologue des savoirs techniques indigènes

Abstract

: The participative and collaborative projects initiated by Irish artist Deirdre O’Mahony and rooted in her rural Burren region, enhance the vernacular heritage and indigenous technical knowledge which are still extant in the area. Her field work focusing on the evolution of the landscape as milieu, and the multiple collaborations she imagines lead to artistic proposals revisiting the land art tradition. Her interventions in the landscape are often complemented by dialogical configurations, among which shared meals or feasts, which incite the participants to ponder the history of places, the power relations underlying the life of the community and the relevance of vernacular knowledge for the future, particularly as regards food security. Her work addresses the colonial history of Ireland through that of the potato, a vegetable keyed to famines and destitution in many different countries. It leads to the creation of living, plural archives. Les connaissances indigènes sont préservées dans la mémoire des gens et dans leurs activités, et elles sont exprimées de différentes façons : histoires, chansons, folklore, pro-verbes, danses, mythes, valeurs culturelles, croyances, rituels, lois, langues et taxonomies locales, pratiques agricoles, équipements, matériaux, espèces animales et végétales 46 .