Time and space are two concepts that are irrevocably linked. They are the here and the now, the then and there, that frames our every experience – that much is intuitively understood. But to what extent does our here influence our experience of the now? What about vice versa?
Curated by Samstag Museum of Art as part of the Adelaide Festival, 2020 Adelaide//International is a series of five discreet exhibitions and events that seek to explore the ways in which built environments can make us aware of the social, spatial and temporal present. 2020 Adelaide//International will be the second installation in what was conceived as a series of three projects – each an artist-lead inquiry into a particular aspect of the human experience of time.
“In 2019 for instance the exhibitions looked at the way we behave looking at the past, the forthcoming exhibitions will look at the phenomenology of the present and, in 2021, we will consider future possibilities,” explains Gillian Brown, curator for Samstag Museum of Art. Comprised of contributions from a diverse range of creatives, 2020 Adelaide//International promises to be a thought-provoking study of architecture as a choreographer of experience.
The centrepiece of the exhibition series will be a restaging of Somewhere Other – Australian architect John Wardle’s acclaimed contribution to the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Designed in collaboration with New York-based artist, Natasha Johns-Messenger, this major work elaborates on architecture as a portal of experience by means of exploring the manner in which it frames perception.
Somewhere Other by John Wardle, Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
Complementing Somewhere Other will be a concise collaboration from artists Zöe Croggon, Helen Grogan and Georgia Saxelby. This group exhibition will comprise a collection of works by Zöe, Helen, and Georgia that examine juxtapositions between architecture and the human form.
Through his contribution, Olympia, Belgian artist David Claerbout seeks to extrapolate the temporal reality of architecture, its legacy and fallibility. A monumental work of moving image, Olympia charts the disintegration of the Berlin Olympic Stadium over the course of a millennium.
Bringing to the table a big-picture perspective of a societal scale is Brad Darkson. Through a combination of sound and sculpture Brad’s publicly situated work will be a critique of antagonistic systems and architectures.
An experimental project by artist and architect Matthew Bird in collaboration with UniSA architecture students will form the final piece of the 2020 Adelaide//International puzzle. Presented at the nearby SASA Gallery, Inspiral reflects on and responds to the concepts and conclusions derived from Adelaide//International through an investigation into art, architecture, and performance.
The exhibition series will be made all the more robust thanks to a number of accompanying talks and events. Such programs include: an artist talk by John Wardle; a keynote address by David Claerbout; a practice-based response by architects for students of art, architecture and design; and a special conversation between John Wardle and comedian, broadcaster and design advocate Tim Ross. An in-conversation between John Wardle and Matthew Bird at the MPavilion, Melbourne, titled Architecture of the present, will extend the conversation interstate in March 2020.
Entry to the 2020 Adelaide//International exhibition series is free and will run from Friday 28 February until Friday 12 June 2020.
Samstag Museum of Art
unisa.edu.au/samstag-museum