DUBLIN (Agence France-Presse)—The Irish capital has come alive with a giant arts festival to celebrate the centenary of the absurdist author Samuel Beckett's birth.

Dublin is hosting a wealth of plays, films, paintings, sculpture and music throughout April to mark the life of its Nobel laureate son, who was born on April 13, 1906 and died in 1989.

The city kicked off its celebrations by projecting the playwright, novelist and poet's words onto several Dublin landmarks on Monday, April 3. 

The light show, which runs for five nights, was arranged by the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer.

The 56-year-old's work has been displayed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Venice Biennale in Italy.

Holzer, who normally projects her own written statements, admitted she felt a bit daunted in tackling Beckett's work.

"I've read him since I was a teenager," she told AFP.

"He confirmed for me my thoughts about the world coming to an end. But he does it with a terrific black humor and kindness too. He looks at the world with despair and kindness.

"I feel very strongly that this city is Beckett's home. In Dublin, his poetry of absurdity becomes rather literal."

A wealth of exhibitions and events are taking place during the Beckett Centenary Festival, and a host of television and radio programs are being specially broadcast.

The Irish government has even sent schools thousands of DVDs featuring Beckett's work.

Dublin's Gate Theatre, which has held three previous Beckett festivals, will put on 10 plays, including Waiting for Godot (1952) and Endgame (1957) as well as a stage version of the lesser-known television play Eh Joe (1965), originally directed by Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan.

The Project Center will stage Beckett's Ghosts, a rare opportunity to see four of his later plays in a single evening.

One of the festival's highlights is the exhibition of his photographer friend John Minihan's pictures at the National Photographic Archive.

Some of the images of Beckett are world-famous, detailing his expressive face and revealing, perhaps, a touch of the mystery surrounding the writer, who cherished solitude and anonymity.

The exhibition also features images captured by Minihan during various productions of Beckett's plays, such as his directing Waiting for Godot at London's Riverside Studios in 1984.

The centenary has inspired several artists to paint, sculpt or compose their tribute to the 1969 Nobel prize for literature winner.

For three years, painter Cian McLoughlin has worked on portraits of actors such as John Hurt, in character and in the costumes they wore in productions of Beckett's plays.

France was Beckett's second home and he wrote a large number of his works in French.

French actress Anne Brochet and dancer Damien Jalet will perform an interpretation of Beckett's L'Image, a nine-page sentence written in the 1950s on Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9. 

The festival's website, http://www.beckettcentenaryfestival.ie/, details all the events taking place to mark what would have been the renowned writer's 100th birthday.


by Christophe Schmidt, Copyright 2006 Agence-France Presse