What do the following have in common? A perfume bottle, smelly socks, a handheld mirror, Joseph Beuys' hat, the hat of a Hasidic Jew in a film by Omer Fast, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper mural in Milan, the great Piraeus Port of Athens, a leather-bound bible rescued from her burning home in former Yugoslavia and unplanned time spent in a church in a sleepy town in France...
Well, they happen to be among the choices of the contributors to Continental Riffs, the new podcast and RTÉ Radio 1 series, that for them catches something of the essence of Europe.
Each episode features a pair whose creative lives have crossed so they are familiar with one another. The series started out as an opportunity for broad cultural conversations while giving a nod to the 50th anniversary in 2023 of Ireland becoming a member of the European Union.
for Continental Riffs
As Declan Lynch in the Sunday Independent wrote about the episode featuring architect Andrew Clancy and actor Cillian Murphy, '(Clancy) revealed his first inklings of the presence of "Europe", hearing about "headage payments" and about David Norris winning his court case - there was also the growing up presence of "Europeans" coming here and doing new things with the land.
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He and Murphy recalled that strange time in life when you’re in your early 20s, maybe travelling on the Continent or just on the London Underground. Murphy spoke about the "crazy anonymity" he found in London at the time, reading books and plays that educated him and sharpened his taste., while Clancy remembered being a student in Paris when ‘there’s times that it is a struggle and that’s important, because that kind of thinking’s hard won, and your brain is literally reshaping itself’.
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Mick Heaney in The Irish Times on the episode featuring dance artist choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir and Nora Hickey M’Sichili, Director of the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris, wrote: ‘There are fond reminiscences about studying at various European institutions. But these memories are melded with broader cultural and social brushstrokes, the discussion touching on everything from geography and language to sexuality… easy-going yet quietly stimulating chemistry between the two friends lends an appealing ambience.
It’s probably best characterised as slow radio, pleasingly meandering conversation that gently washes over the curious listener. Sometimes there’s no need to argue, as The Cranberries once observed.’
For visual artist Barbara Knesevic in her episode, ‘visiting the Danube was a moment where I wanted to make sure I remembered everything… I was like, roll down the window (of the car). It was freezing cold, everyone was like, can you roll up the window, and I was like, I need to smell it…it was a really, intense and important moment to see this body of water, that extends all the way to the Black Sea from the Black Forest in Germany… it’s passing through so many European countries but also where it is, there is the border with Romania and Serbia, the border of the European Union …and it is epic.’
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During the Second World War, Barbara’s European grandparents worked in forced labour camps and lost countless family members, in dreadful circumstances before setting off from the port of Naples after the war, spending the rest of their lives in Australia, where Barbara was born. Today, she and her co-contributor to this episode, Dragana Jurišic, are Irish citizens who live in Dublin.
Check out further episodes of Continental Riffs on RTÉ Radio 1 and wherever you get your podcasts.
