A unique exhibition on the wartime Nissen shelters is to be staged in Derry.
Hundreds of the metal shelters were built in Derry during the world wars to house military personnel based in the city.
After the Second World War, many of the Nissen shelters were used to house local people during a housing crisis in Derry.
The largest of the collection of shelters was at Springtown Camp which remained in existence for many years.
Now, an exhibition is to look at the important role that the Nissen shelters played during the wars.
Irish artist Anne Tallentire will consider an architectural legacy of the Nissen hut in a major new work called Shelter.
The exhibition has been co-commissioned by the Nerve Centre and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.
Shelter will explore material and conceptual relationships between the Nissen shelter and contemporary building practices associated with how emergency architecture is responding to the humanitarian crisis and the mass movement of peoples in Europe today.
Working in a range of media including text, drawing, assemblage and video Tallentire will exhibit Shelter on site at the Ebrington Parade Ground from July 2-9 and at the new Nerve Visual gallery throughout July.
The work on the parade ground will include a series of seven daily live events.
In June, visitors are invited to the open studios where Tallentire will be at work.
The studios are located in the Nerve Visual gallery, Eighty81, the former army barracks which housed the Turner Prize during City of Culture 2013.
David Lewis, Director of Communications and Digital Content at Nerve Centre, said: “The Nerve Centre is delighted to be re-opening the Turner Prize gallery spaces with this major new work Shelter by Anne Tallentire, in partnership with 14-18 NOW.
“The invention of the Nissen hut left an architectural legacy across Europe, not least in Derry~Londonderry, where people were living in similar structures in Springtown Camp up until the 1960s.
“The Nerve Centre is excited to be working with an artist of Tallentire’s calibre and international reputation to explore this legacy.”
Shelter is one of four major events and new commissions taking place across Northern Ireland in 2016, as part of the 14-18 NOW programme.
The Nerve Visual gallery will open today with Shelter and the exhibition will run until July 31.
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