Circa, Ireland’s premier, independent contemporary art magazine has just published its Winter 2009 edition. It is the 130th issue of the magazine, which has been running since the early ‘eighties. They have an on-line version also.

For the last number of years the magazine was published quarterly in colour, however the current issue is black-and-white, A4 in size, and the cover design is effectively identical to the design of the first Circa, published 28 years ago.

On the front cover is an image of Amanda Coogan’s Cut Piece, which she performed in September of this year. She is draped in some material and looks as if she is falling backward, injured, almost as if shot. Coogan is Ireland’s most prominent performance artist. She was also on the board of The Darklight X Festival. She exhibits, or rather performs, internationally and has represented Ireland at the Venice Bienale 2003 and the Liverpool Bienale 2004. Coogan studied under the Serbian-born and internationally acclaimed performance artist Marina Abramovic and was also involved in a group show, curated by Abramovic, in IMMA a number of years back.

Inside, Circa is an excellent publication. It is edited by Peter Fitzgerald – along with a contributing board of contemporary art critics, writers, and practitioners. External contributors also submit reviews and articles.

The reviews cover exhibitions that have taken place over the previous months, with a focus on emerging and established artists in Ireland, North and South. Each year they cover a handful of students graduating from the various fine art undergraduate degree programmes around the Republic and the North of Ireland.

Featured articles can range from artist interview format to essay. They are almost always well written and very informative. After reading the magazine you have always learned something new about contemporary art, particularly Irish contemporary art.

Regarding the magazine design – despite the financial reasons that forced Circa into publishing the black-and-white issue – it remains a very attractive publication and the quality of the images inside is still excellent.

In the editorial of this issue, there is an explanation of the financial concerns that have brought Circa to this decision, namely that funding is not guaranteed for the coming year and that advertising revenue has dropped by 80 per cent over the last 18 months. However, he asks: “Can you help Circa at this time?”

His editorial strikes an ultimately defiant note by urging people to read the just-published Indecon report to the Arts Council – which “provides an invaluable overview of the financial importance of the arts to the economy of Ireland.” -Adrian Duncan