The House of Oscar Wilde (as imagined by Arthur Cravan) is an art project presented at the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing in Dublin. In its totality this piece meant to be a mise en scène based on Cravan’s meticulous description of Wilde’s House in London having the House 21 in Westland Row, where the Irish writer was born, as the exhibition venue.

Arthur Cravan (born in 1887, Lausanne, Switzerland, disappeared on a sailboat in 1918 off the coast of the Mexican Pacific) was a poet, a pugilist, an iconic figure for the Dada movement, and, very crucially for the Dublin component of the project, Wilde’s nephew. Though Cravan never met Wilde, the writer became a figure whose steps he needed to follow. Re-creating the place which Wilde inhabited following the rumours of others was an endeavour of first importance for Cravan who was looking to shape the Wilde in his mind using his own words.

One step ahead, this project —comprising an installation with objects and a live performance—, is a collective effort coordinated by an anonymous artist that looks to materialise the space Cravan imagined to welcome other Wilde hunters, readers, admirers or even mere acquaintances to inhabit it by themselves.

The artist who conceived this project was asked about the meaning of anonymity in his work. This is what he responded:

“I don’t want people to talk about myself, I don’t even want people to talk about what I do. I want them to think that this, what I am doing, could be done by themselves. I want them to think that they could live as I live, write as I write, love as I love. I am anyone.

“This is the reason I don’t sign anything. Anonymity in my work is not about disappearing or hiding, I actually like working close to other people, “showing” myself to them, it’s about dissolving into these others, and into their words, and into the world, like a rumour. That, and not my “work”, is the trace I want to leave behind.”

Here you can book entrance tickets for the exhibition. Due to space limitations, timed access is in place. Please arrive on time for the allocated slot.

For ticekts, visit Eventbrite