From a life-size carousel in NGV’s Federation Forecourt to a grand imagining of Melbourne’s primordial wilderness at the State Library of Victoria to an intriguing investigation into the shifting boundaries between art forms at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, this year’s Melbourne Art Festival program will occupy Melbourne’s most prestigious galleries, art spaces and unexpected locations for an all-encompassing visual arts program.
This year’s Festival will see the world premiere of the spectacular life-size Golden Mirror Carousel by world‐renowned Belgian artist Carsten Höller. The fourth in a series of carousels and underscoring this year’s Festival micro-theme of circus, this awe-inspiring creation offers visitors to NGV’s Federation Court a notably different physical experience than the traditional fairground merry-go-round, while at the same time reflecting and illuminating the space surrounding it.
The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art presents Framed Movements – an intriguing investigation into the potential that lies at the shifting boundaries between art forms bringing together some of the world’s most forward thinking contemporary artists from Denmark, Poland, the USA, New Zealand, Australia and more.
Monash University Museum of Art presents the Australian premiere of Art as a Verb – an exhibition which interrogates the idea of art as a participatory medium – a form of action that strikes beyond the bounds of the frame, drawing together a rich history of provocateurs including Alan Kaprow, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Martin Creed and many more.
During her lifetime, Vivian Maier produced more than 100,000 photographic images, which remained undiscovered until 2007, two years before her death. Exhibited for the first time in Australia to coincide with the Melbourne premiere of Finding Vivian Maier, the Centre for Contemporary Photography celebrates this reluctant artist’s timely relevance juxtaposing her work with contemporary Australian photography, performance and video in an exhibition titled Crossing Paths with Vivian Maier.
This year, Melbourne Festival joins with the Naomi Milgrim Foundation to introduce a vibrant new feature to Melbourne’s skyline. Mpavilion is a unique collision of architectural design, art and performance space. Playing host to an engaging program of free performances and talks, MPavilion promises to be a wondrous, ephemeral addition to the city’s landscape.
Melbourne artist and Library fellow, Linda Tegg orchestrates Grasslands – a grand meditation on nature versus culture at the State Library of Victoria that will restore the stone forecourt to an imagined primordial wilderness. The result is a breathtaking reclamation of the city’s best-loved public spaces.
Spreading further than Melbourne’s CBD in 2014 to the TarraWarra Museum of Art – Whisper in my Mask explores the many masks we wear in our lives. Featuring specially commissioned works from more than twenty of Australia’s most vital contemporary artists offering a cross-generational, multidisciplinary perspective on one of humanity’s most primal instincts.
Following its debut in 2013, Melbourne Art Trams once again populates the city’s iconic tram network with moving works of art designed by eight of the state’s most innovative visual artists.
In addition to the expansive range of exhibitions and projects taking place as part of this year’s program, a number of talks and artists in conversation will also feature.
Melbourne Festival 2014
10 to 26 October, 2014
