MPavilion

In an era of ‘planetary urbanisation’ the making and moving of urban cultures becomes a global process, but also one firmly embedded in place. Creating the 21st century city requires new ways to understand culture, place and sustainability at a time defined by dynamic flows of people and ideas.

Taking cues from Bijoy Jain’s MPavilion 2016, this MTalks panel featured the shining lights of Australian academia on urbanism and kicks-off our November program that focuses on creative cities, urbanism and culture. This panel chat covered critical issues and ideas for contemporary urban change in an urbanising South Asia, and, at the same time, explores how a South Asian diaspora in Australian suburbia go through the process of making place and belonging.

Hear back from Professor Peter Newman of Curtin University; Dr Michele Lobo of Deakin University; Dr Harry Fischer of La Trobe University; and Dr Trevor Hogan of La Trobe University for this MTalks at MPavilion.

For this, the first (not a) book club, i-D AU/NZ's Wendy Syfret was joined by Penny Modra of The Good Copy to look at the twelve-part episodic podcast series ‘Charles Manson’s Hollywood’ from the podcast ‘You Must Remember This’.

The twelve-part series of podcast episodes “…explore the murders committed in the summer of 1969 by followers of Charles Manson, and the Hollywood music and movie scene surrounding the killings.”

Wendy and Penny discussed why we’re so obsessed with Charles Mason, other cults, how the Manson murders both inspired and were inspired by popular culture, and drew comparisons between those trends and things they observe in our present day.

The rise of fascism and the resulting European diaspora of the inter-war and post-war periods brought émigré and refugee modernists to live in Australia. Some were practitioners of Bauhaus from the German school of the same name often cited as the most influential modernist movement of the 20th century. Figures such as Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Inge King, Gerhard Herbst, Ernest Fooks, Fredrick Sterne, Harry Seidler, Karl and Gertrude Langer transformed Australian art, architecture and design education from the 1930s to the 1970s. Their systematic approaches to design, colour theory and art education have made a lasting impact on this country.

A group of leading academics—Harriet Edquist, professor of architectural history and director of Design Archives at RMIT University; Philip Goad, professor of architecture and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne; Ann Stephen, senior curator, University Art Gallery & University Art Collection, The University of Sydney; professor of art and art history at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Isabel Wünsche and art historian and professor of visual arts at Queensland University of Technology Andrew McNamara—have assembled to investigate the impact of Bauhaus ideas on the history of modernist art, architecture and design in Australia. Their research on this new international framework for Australian culture will be published and exhibited to coincide with the Bauhaus centenary in 2019. To mark their journey through the project, this MTalks round table conversation brought them together to dissect and discuss how Bauhaus émigrés influenced Australian art.

Visiting Melbourne as part of the Bauhaus in Australia launch, Penelope Seidler met with Dr Ann Stephen and Philip Goad for this special in conversation MTalk at MPavilion. With an illustrious career as an architect and a life devoted to the arts, Penelope spoke about architecture then and now, as well as her life with her professional partner and husband, famed leader in Australian modernism and exponent of Bauhaus, Harry Seidler.

Revisit this MTalk with Glenn Murcutt, Australia’s best-known architect internationally, in conversation with MPavilion 2014 architect Sean Godsell chatting about Glenn’s enduring and award-winning career as an architect. Glenn’s illustrious career has seen him awarded the honour Order of Australia (AO) in 1996 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2002—often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of Architecture’. He is also a recipient of numerous Australian Institute of Architects Awards and has been a visiting professor at a number of prestigious universities. This MTalks convo is sure to provide insights into these two great Australian architects.

With a growing urban design movement focussed on creating liveable streets, the benefits of walking as a catalyst for sustainable, healthy, prosperous and attractive cities is gaining attention. From seventy years of practice, Arup recognises that a walkable city is a better city, and that the more we all walk, the better the city is. This knowledge, underpinned by hearty amounts of research, has resulted in 'Cities Alive: Towards a walking world', Arup’s recent publication.

Listen back to their talk at MPavilion with Dr Anne Kovachevich, Arup Australasia's "Foresight + Innovation Leader", to discuss the publication of this report, one which highlights the significant social, economic, environmental and political benefits of walking. Informed by specialist insight and multidisciplinary expertise from across Arup’s global offices, the publication highlights fifty benefits of walking explored across sixteen distinct indicative themes by eighty international case studies, and lists forty new actions that city leaders can consider to inform walking policy, strategy and design.

The Mahābhārata is South Asia’s most important literary text. A long narrative of epic struggle between two sets of parallel cousins, it tells of the transformation of social, religious and cultural mores in ancient Indian society between 200BCE and 200CE. It was once known at all levels of society and has continued to be read, heard and performed up until the present day.

Hear back from La Trobe University’s Greg Bailey for this MTalks lecture that speaks about the ancient yet enduringly significant Mahābhārata. Jump back in time to the beginning of the common era when it was first composed; Greg summarised the contents and principal characters, as well as described some of the most dramatic moments in the narrative. Learn how it fits in the modern world; the way it continues to be used in the media and political circles, and how it has been shaping modern Hindu culture.

Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) in association with Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art (IMA) and Curatorial Practice at Monash Art Design and Architecture (MADA) were pleased to present a special lecture at MPavilion by visiting international curator and writer, Tirdad Zolghadr.

Tirdad Zolghadr is a curator and writer. He is the associate curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, director of the Summer Academy Paul Klee in Bern, and teaches at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem. His most recent book is Traction, published by Sternberg Press 2016.

About ‘The Artist as Quarry’:

Artists are always falling prey to something or other. Censorship, curators, bad lighting, jet lag, bigotry, cultural prejudice, institutions in particular and The Institution At Large. Never are they complicit in any of these things.

The goal of this lecture was not to trace examples of when victimisation is real or imagined. The aim, rather, is to trace the role and political rationale of self-marginalisation within the moral economy of contemporary art. The goal of this exercise, in turn, was to speculate as to how this rationale might be translated into a more meaningful professional identity, with more tangible political traction, over time.

Tirdad Zolghadr’s lecture is part of ‘The Artist As…’, a year-long lecture series co-presented by the IMA and Curatorial Practice at MADA. The series examines the ways artists move through the world and how that movement might involve adopting other roles to pursue a project, a position, a politic, or a practice. For any given project the artist may act as architect, as ethnographer, as archivist, as producer, as curator, as activist, as choreographer, and so on. ‘The Artist As…’ also recognises that many artists come to their practice as experts in other fields, bringing with them specialist knowledge that informs and shapes their work.

Following the lecture Tara McDowell, Associate Professor and Director of Curatorial Practice at Monash University, will lead a Q&A session.

This event is proudly supported by The Saturday Paper.

In 1914 the Griffins, minted from the firmament of the Prairie School, were newly arrived in Australia and ready to test their ideas in that rarest of all architectural laboratories, a grand urban design scheme for a new and entirely planned city. But their lofty ideals were to dissipate rapidly: their design for Canberra, which won the 1911 international competition, would meet vicious opposition and never be fully realised.

Instead they conjured up Newman College and the Capitol Theatre, estates at Castlecrag and Eaglemont, the towns of Leeton and Griffith, and a construction system known as Knitlock, eventually following their aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities to Lucknow, India.

Listen to Sir Jonathan Mills and Philip Goad for this conversation, one that promised to cover the legacy of the Griffins, a name etched in our capital and national consciousness.

Get up close to the mechanics of centuries-old instruments with an informal hour-long chat as the Australian String Quartet presented its new series 'Close Quarters'—a concept dedicated to playing in intimate and unique settings. Enjoy a diverse and lively conversation as Australia’s pre-eminent string quartet threw aside traditional conventions to present some of its favourite music over a tipple from our kiosk and a snack from its hamper. Over dinner have a listen to this insightful chat.