Michael Fortune has been a pioneer in the area of socially engaged work within Ireland over the past fifteen years and his practice has widened the conversations regarding the intersection of traditional and contemporary cultures. Fortune continues to produce project work throughout the country and works as a part-time Associate Lecturer at Limerick School of Art and Design (Master of Education and Digital Media). He also conducts work as a Visiting Lecturer in many colleges and universities throughout Ireland and is currently an External Examiner on Limerick School of Art and Design’s MA programme. His life, interests and practice are an intertwined and inseparable mix of the ancient, the contemporary, the private, the public and the intangible.
Video stills from ‘JFK’s Secret Landing’, short film, 2013, commissioned by Wexford County Council
Michael grew up in a family immersed in story, superstition and folk belief in an area known as ‘The Macamores’, an old Gaelic stronghold stretching along the east coast of County Wexford. He completed his BA in Fine Art, specialising in video and performance, at Limerick School of Art in 1999 and his MA in Screenwriting at DLIADT in 2003. Working predominantly in film and photography, much of his practice revolves around the collection of material – material which he generates out of the relationships and experiences he develops with the people he encounters. The intimate nature of the relationships with the people and circumstances he encounters, and the subsequent reflective treatment of the material at hand, is a key feature of Fortune’s work.
Much of Fortune’s work borrows from the popular conventions of film, home video, snap photography and the printed media and his work can be seen as growing out of a tradition of social documentary and anthropological film. He combines the stand-alone idiosyncrasies of people and incidents in everyday life, with complex and visually careful and contemplative treatments that adeptly handle the aesthetics of repetition, humour, obscurity, strangeness and intimacy.
Selection of DVD Covers from The Michael Fortune Folklore Collection (22 DVDs) which was launched by Manchán Magan in the National Library of Ireland in October 2016.
Growing up in an environment steeped in folklore has awarded Michael a natural understanding of the crossover between traditional and contemporary beliefs and customs, and the fluid borders where fact and fiction meet. As a result he has been commissioned to undertake multiple folklore collections on film throughout Ireland over the past fifteen years, in rural and urban communities, with young and old. At the core of Michael’s recordings are people and his genuine connection and engagement results in uniquely rich and personal material.
A sample of some of the recordings from The Michael Fortune Folklore Collection on You Tube.
He has produced an extensive portfolio of collaborative project work which has been developed in partnerships with national organisations such as the National Library of Ireland and the Irish Traditional Music Archive to smaller communities of interest including traditional singing groups, local historic societies and a wide range of individuals and community groups. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and bursaries for his work, which he presents extensively nationally and internationally in a variety of contexts, ranging from gallery exhibitions and online presentations through to single screen presentations in film and video art festivals. Michael lives at the foot of Mount Leinster with his partner, Aileen Lambert and their three young children.
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