Milk Market

Cornmarket Row, LimerickGoogle Maps

The Milk Market is a popular food market and one of the key markers of the city today. Despite the name, it has diversified over the years and now sells a wide variety of foodstuffs, much of which is produced locally. The market is one of the oldest in Ireland.
In 1995, the site underwent extensive renovations by Murray O’Laoire Architects, transforming it into an outdoor market space. Further work was carried out in 2010 by Healy Partners Architects, which enabled market trading to be extended and for the courtyard to be used for leisure and entertainment facilities.
This site was one of 10 listed venues for the 35th edition of EVA in 2012, curated by Annie Fletcher (b. 1971, Ireland).
In 2012 Gracelands developed an event titled Circling the Square, curated by Vaari Claffey. The project asked artists to take two geometric shapes as starting points, considering the ‘square’ as a central meeting point, the site of social exchange and civic or political gathering, as well as a site for the display and exchange of produce, artefacts and effects, and a ‘circle’ as a kind of uncertain or preparatory gathering for these occasions. The event included live performances, sculptural works and film.
Using the Milk Market stalls and other objects as a system of display, the project presented a temporary museum on the roof of the central building. Copies and documentation of works by El Lissitzky and Franz Erhard Walther from the Van Abbemuseum collection were displayed alongside a series of photocopied works on paper by Sarah Pierce.