The Kite Ballet

What to Expect

The Kite Ballet is a multidisciplinary installation by artist Thais Muniz, bringing together film, textiles, photography and sculpture across The Dock’s gallery space, a former nineteenth-century courthouse on the banks of the Shannon. The centrepiece is a film following local kite runners in Abaete, a bioregion in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, as they carry out a weekly ritual flight that doubles as an act of resistance against the real estate development and displacement threatening their traditional lands. Muniz treats play as what she describes as a revolutionary act for adulthood, using the rhythm of kites against open sky to explore territoriality, community and the bond between people and the ground and water they depend on. Textile, photographic and sculptural elements extend the film’s themes into physical objects installed around the room, so the show reads as one continuous environment rather than a set of separate pieces hung on a wall. The subject matter is specific to a Brazilian coastal community, but the underlying questions about who gets to claim land, and what is lost when it is redeveloped, translate easily for a Leitrim audience familiar with debates over rural land use closer to home.

Good to Know

• Dates: on show since Saturday, 20 June, continuing to Saturday, 22 August 2026
• Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, closed bank holidays
• Venue: The Dock, St George’s Terrace, Carrick-on-Shannon
• Price: free admission, no booking required to view the exhibition itself
• Curator: Erika Mei Chua Holum, with communications handled by Aaron Dobson
• The run’s public programme, now concluded, included a free opening reception with live music on 20 June, a booked artist conversation between Muniz and Maeve Connolly on 4 July, and a paid kite-making workshop with Muniz and Lucas Paranhos on 11 July at €10
• Contact: 071 965 0828

Getting There

The Dock is on St George’s Terrace in Carrick-on-Shannon town centre, a short walk from the town’s bus stop and railway station on the Dublin to Sligo line, with street parking and public car parks nearby on the quays.

While You’re in Carrick-on-Shannon

Carrick-on-Shannon is the county town, built along a wide bend of the River Shannon, with a marina, riverside walkway and a good run of cafes and restaurants close to The Dock. There is more to see in Carrick-on-Shannon and across Co. Leitrim.