Abstract

Arising from the large, itnernational "Joyce in Art" exhibition, RHA, dublin, Bloomsday Centenary, Dublin 2004, I was interested in representing Joyce at a festival focussing on seven canonical Western writers. This gave me access to a traditional writers' museum, the Tolstoy Estate, Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, a National Museum.It was highly unusual to take contemporary art into such a context - considering both the audiences of the museum and other Festival participants from other countries.It was an experiment that was embraced by the locals in particular, workers on the farm that is Tolstoy's Estate. This endeavour enabled "knowledge transfer", networks and some small steps towards contemporary art being seen as an important tool in the mediation of literature, especially of authors that were socially interested and engaged, such as Tolstoy and Joyce.