Producer/Director Adrian McCarthy tells the story behind Portrait Of A Gallery, his remarkable documentary portrait of the refurbishment of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Watch the documentary Portrait Of A Gallery now, via RTÉ Player.
When asked to write about this project, one of my initial challenges was to go back to the very start and figure out when I first approached the National Gallery of Ireland. I know it was sometime in late 2011 or early 2012 when I was politely told ‘thanks, but no thanks’. The timing wasn’t right and there was a wariness. I knocked on the door a couple of more times and eventually in mid 2013, after a couple of meetings, things started to move with the Gallery agreeing to give access. That was the first big step. I then approached RTE who came on board, followed by support from the BAI Sound and Vision Fund. We had lift-off.
Filming finally began on the 16th January 2014, as government ministers arrived to sign off on the start of one of the largest refurbishment projects in the history of the state. What followed was an education about art, gallery life and what it takes to rip apart old protected historic buildings and transform them into some of the top gallery spaces in the world. I can now bore people with conversations about underpinning, Carlo Cambi door-frames and art hanging techniques!
One of the interesting challenges was figuring out ways of filming the vast building project on one side of the wall, while also capturing the day to day life of the working gallery on the other. A ‘buffer-zone’ was created as a narrow space dividing the open gallery and the demolition crew. That was a nice device to have for a filmmaker, with two very different worlds co-existing. I also knew the worlds would eventually come back together when the building was returned to the staff with the exciting prospect of the largest re-hang in the gallery's history.
Of course there were difficulties along the way. But these were outweighed by moments of magic and awe; the first time I set foot in the Conservation Department; standing in what felt like a war zone beneath the buildings at the height of demolition; the moment the builders found a hidden water well beneath the basement; getting intimate with the damaged Monet painting as it received its final touch up before going back on display; the days when the rain just wouldn’t stop; the secret handwritten note from 1901 found in the Carlo Cambi door frames; when the scaffolding came down to reveal the amzing new space in the courtyard... Moments, there were many.
The benefit of a lengthy production period is that you get to witness great transformation over an extended period of time - the real challenge was knowing when to film and when to ignore something. When to have camera and sound crew, and when to go in solo with a camera. With the help of Valerie Keogh in the NGI press office, and construction site manager John Francis, we were in and out a lot. A lot! The edit was mammoth, with at least two hundred hours of raw footage (I’m afraid to ask the total amount). Editor Brenda Morrissey has done an extraordinary job.
After three and a half years in the making, we switched the camera off for the final time on Thursday 15th June 2017, as we witnessed the public set foot in the newly refurbished wings of the Gallery. I found it oddly emotional. It has been a long and fascinating road. I hope viewers enjoy it and then go visit their National Gallery.
Portrait Of A Gallery, RTÉ One, Tuesday 27th June at 9.35pm
