This year we are showcasing an amazing work of The Icon Factory artists and the concept of The Icon Walk. Exhibition open daily from 19th September to 6th October.
Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm
Thursday – 10 am – 8 pm
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION ON THURSDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER @ 6PM
FREE ADMISSION

WHAT IS THE ICON WALK?
Members of the artist’s cooperative produce images of icons of Irish culture for display on The Icon Walk. These artworks representing rock stars, sporting heroes, writers, television stars are reproduced and available in various forms in The Icon Factory. Fine art prints, t-shirts, posters and other items bearing the reproduced iconic art are available for sale to support the Icon Walk mission.
These activities have functioned to revitalize a depressed urban area and to significantly reduce the crime rate therein. The Icon Walk become Ireland’s largest open-air art-installation. Stroll past original images of individuals, many famous and some infamous, who have made significant contributions to Irish culture in the last century. Set out along the walls of the cobbled laneways on Temple Bar has attracted many tourists, locals, student groups and photographers to this area and has effectively reclaimed what was an unsightly and unsafe section of Temple Bar.

Raison d’etre

The driving force behind this co-operative effort grew from the realisation that the culture had changed and for many of us that meant that we were on our own.
It seemed to us that a seismic systemic failure across the entire landscape had occurred and that our former leaders, those who had taken us to this place were the last ones likely to get us out of the mess. No point in waiting for things to get better, they won’t, so have some fun.
We were without funds but we still had our wits, so we pooled our treasure, our energy, and embraced our future rather than wait for the past to resurrect itself. Was it not an illusion anyway?

Concept

We are the postmodern Irish, so we redesign the elements of our heritage to our own image. We present the writers, the musicians, the sports figures, the disparate elements which never disappointed us during THE GREAT DELUSION
Believing that art civilizes, that it can be an educational tool, that it can function to instil a new civic regard for public spaces – we saw our opportunity to put our ideas to the test in the neglected lanes and alleyways immediately behind Fleet Street, the main thoroughfare in Dublin’s Temple, the city’s cultural area. We also knew that Ireland’s economic slump had depressed many of us and we sought to remind people of the riches of our cultural heritage – how we had riches aplenty across our cultural spectrum.

In Conclusion

The Celtic Tiger turned out to be a pussy cat so now its time for Gaelic Lions to roar, to roam the midland bog-lands and the sidewalks of Temple Bar. We will honour you if we love you and mock those whom we disrespect.