The Complex, a major multi-artform venue in Dublin, was evicted from its warehouse building in January 2026 after its lease expired. A public campaign to save it, supported by politicians and cultural officials, failed due to a lack of legal mechanisms to protect grassroots cultural organizations. This closure follows a pattern of similar artist-led spaces folding in Ireland, most recently Ormond Studios.
The loss of The Complex represents a significant contraction of Dublin's cultural infrastructure, removing a key venue for experimental visual art, live music, film, and performance. It highlights the vulnerability of artist-led initiatives in a city with limited physical spaces for such activity, leaving a gap between large national institutions and private galleries, and forcing more artistic practice into temporary, fugitive events.