Finding true happiness

The Economist Intelligence Unit Survery, which puts Ireland at the top of the list of places in the world to live, seems a little questionable to Billy Leahy, but the art exhibition it inspired is anything but

Ireland is the happiest country in the world. Well, according to the title of the exhibition of contemporary art housed in The Atrium of the Office of Public Works last week it is; and this apparently wild claim can be backed up by no less a body than The Economist Intelligence Unit.

As titles go 'The Economist Intelligence Unit' does sound pretty reliable and clever (it has the word 'intelligence' in its name after all) and one can presume it is probably comprised of a gaggle of bespectacled eggheads with more smarts and towers of statistics than most. So when they declare Ireland to be the best country in the entire planet to live in, they must have some serious evidence to back it up.

And yes, the EIU has gone to great lengths to discover that our fair and green land is the happiest country in the world. Creating a new methodology by combining pre-existing subjective life-satisfaction surveys with objective determinants of the quality of life in 111 countries, Ireland came out – fists clenched – on top of the podium.

The objective determinants used were material well-being, health, political stability, family and community life, climate and geography, job security, political freedom and gender equality. Taking these into account, the EIU declared that Ireland combines "the most desirable elements of the new material well-being, low unemployment rates, political liberties with the preservation of certain life satisfaction-enhancing, or modernity cushioning elements of the old, such as stable family life and the avoidance of the breakdown of community".

But before we chortle, guffaw and send our friends at the EIU back to the drawing board, start wading through reams of stats looking for a forgotten decimal point in a complex equation, invite them over to sample our beautiful climate or the Saturday night "community spirit" in Temple Bar, we must remember the old adage...lies, damn lies and statistics.

Some of the indicators in the analysis fall flat straight away. 'Health', for instance, is measured by life expectancy at birth – which ignores weaknesses in the healthcare infrastructure, as well as the high instances of Irish breakfast-induced heart disease, while high suicide rates were also not factored into the equation. But despite the obvious failures of the survey, it is not entirely without foundation – so how does living in statistically the best country in the world translate to the day-to-day state of the nation?

This is where the EIU and their scientific methods come up a little short, and art rolls in to interpret and examine and broaden the enquiry past the vox-pop analysis and into the realm of the everyday social and political world, complete with its imperfections and, yes, dropped decimal points.

The Happiest Country in the World brings together 20 contemporary artists to explore this facet and to give – through the various perspectives and angles that a group show produces – a more realistic view of our society. Cleverly, some artists use the methods of the EIU by surveying people and compiling their own statistics. John Byrne's 'Would you die for Ireland?' is an intriguing vox-pop conducted in Belfast, Cork and Dublin, which displays differing attitudes and responses to this question, divided and defined somewhat by class, religion and geography. Elsewhere, Theresa Nanigian's 'Leading Indicators' informs us of how long we have to wait for a Hermès bag, while also bombarding us with stats concerning economic divisions in our society that the EIU failed to counter in.

Sean Lynch focuses on the 'them and us' nature of Irish society with his card and paper model of the Ansbacher Bank building, while current issues such as the integration of immigrants find a voice through Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's six minute DVD piece, Moore Street.

What The Happiest Country in the World does is to see past the statistics, dragging out the realities of modern Irish life. It has now moved on to show at the Festival Interceltique at Lorient in Brittany (before most likely returning to our shores later in the year) where is should prove that although Ireland is not the happiest place on earth, it is currently producing significant and exciting artistic output to rank alongside the world's best.