“travelfreetravel” is a new transatlantic collaboration between artists Bernardine Carroll in Ireland and Maggie Shirley in Canada . Through their unconventional travel agency they intend to convoy their participants on fanciful adventures through space and time. This multi-disciplinary project involves a diverse array of media ranging from the technical tools of Skype and video links to more direct formats of hand-building, public interaction and conversation and through these they endeavour to take their tourists to real and imagined places, side-stepping the vastness of seas and oceans, impervious to economic and ecological issues and flouting the unsmiling realities of borders and guns.  How accurate is the experience of real tourists in contrived tourists spots that have to adhere to prescribed narratives? In July the two artists will take up residence in Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada to develop work which bridges Canada and Ireland and looks at the notion of contrived experience of real tourists in real tourist spots. Through a number of events and workshops as well as the installation of a live link between the studio in Canada and a site in Ireland , “travelfreetravel” plans to engage locals and visitors in an enjoyable and memorable tour.

www.travelfreetravel.wordpress.com