MPavilion

Painting Country is about more than words can convey. It is at the heart of some of Australia’s most vital creative, cultural and political movements. To paint Country is to make visible a world of meaning and values that are otherwise often lost in translation. Aboriginal artists, diplomats and intellectuals have continually sought to cross the divide of cross-cultural ignorance and misunderstand...

In Australia, post-war modernism was a response to the profound social change that occurred following World War II. We are now living through another time of intense global change, and uncertainty is impacting our lives. How will current issues—such as the global pandemic and climate change—impact how we approach the way we live, and housing, for the years ahead? This panel discussion looks at dom...

Rituals have many functions—to maintain connection, honour history, and build the future by observing the important present. The rise of Asian-Australian podcasting did exactly this in the wake of increasing hostility towards Asians as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Through podcasts, Asian-Australians embraced their identities, celebrated their unique brands of pop culture, and shared their...

After 40+ years in print, Artlink proudly delivers its annual Artlink Indigenous issue, Visualising Sovereignty, edited by Paola Balla and Ali Gumillya Baker. Now in its eleventh year, this platform brings together leading First Nations scholars, artists and curators from across the country who have responded critically and candidly to the political, social and cultural issues of the moment. Come...

This talk brings together three of the most exciting and highly regarded emerging First Nations artists showing at the 2022 Melbourne Art Fair. Butchulla and Burmese artist Mia Boe, Arrernte artist Thea Anamara Perkins and Quandamooka artist Kyra Mancktelow all work in different styles, mediums and methods but through their contemporary practice, they are all storytellers; exploring what it means...

'Suspended Activation' is an installation designed by the Stockholm-based architecture office Secretary and fabricated in Melbourne by Ellen Sayers. Part outdoor gym equipment, part children’s play equipment, the structure repurposes the resistance bands used in physiotherapy and fitness training in order to invite its audiences to engage with its malleable surfaces, which deform and stretch under...

The pandemic, climate change, and the continued constraints on international (and interstate!) travel have left us reimagining how we recharge. Exploring themes of resilience, tourism, place, culture, technology, transport and history, we question: How might we still get away from it all? This discussion looks at lessons from our past to help reinvent our future—proving that the journey can be as...

Climate change, the pandemic, and decades of unchecked development have left our city crying out for more meaningful design. As we grapple with the changes of the ‘now,’ and how to re-engage with the urban, questions on what needs to be done to repair our relationship with the city are increasingly relevant. In this conversation, the multidisciplinary panel featuring Andy Fergus, Maddi Miller, Ame...

In a scorching summer when we are seeking sand and sea, how does Melbourne entice its citizens to stay local and vacay in their own town? This panel, convened by Yarra Pools, brings together activists, artists and thinkers to explore the possibilities of how the Yarra Birrarung could become the ultimate summer destination.

How do you talk about your work? How do you connect with what drives you? How have the past couple of years disrupted your practice? And how long has it been since you’ve paused and reflected on how and why you create work – and what might come next? In this conversation, long-time MPavilion collaborator Esther Anatolitis provides much-needed space and time for reinvigoration designed to reconnect...

How do the spaces we inhabit allow for spontaneity and play? How can we embed these ways of being into the built environment? Hear us unpack these questions and more in a two-part series dedicated to exploring the influence of active and accidental play on the built environment. Join artist and assistant professor at Williams College, Pallavi Sen, sit down with two fascinating practitioners who in...

How do the spaces we inhabit allow for spontaneity and play? How can we embed these ways of being into the built environment? Hear us unpack these questions and more in a two-part series dedicated to exploring the influence of active and accidental play on the built environment. Join artist and assistant professor at Williams College, Pallavi Sen, sit down with two fascinating practitioners who in...

A series of ‘Illuminating Conversations’ with Place Intelligence explores the role of data in cities, in public institutions and how its role has changed with Covid-19 and the climate emergency. DATA AS ILLUMINATION - Urban data experts discuss how new forms of city data make hidden patterns visible and public, illuminating access to knowledge, and how our knowledge institutions are responsible fo...

A series of ‘Illuminating Conversations’ with Place Intelligence explores the role of data in cities, in public institutions and how its role has changed with Covid-19 and the climate emergency. DATA AS ILLUMINATION - Urban data experts discuss how new forms of city data make hidden patterns visible and public, illuminating access to knowledge, and how our knowledge institutions are responsible fo...

A series of ‘Illuminating Conversations’ with Place Intelligence explores the role of data in cities, in public institutions and how its role has changed with Covid-19 and the climate emergency. DATA AS ILLUMINATION - Urban data experts discuss how new forms of city data make hidden patterns visible and public, illuminating access to knowledge, and how our knowledge institutions are responsible fo...

The Maldives is synonymous with luxury holidays: the ultimate “Robinson Crusoe” island escape where you can be treated like royalty and step out of your busy lives. Over the span of 50 years, Maldivian tourism developed from humble beginnings to a place that now welcomes over one million tourists per year (almost double the country’s population), and the number of resorts is reaching close to the...

As Nyoongar Country morphs into Yamatji Country, off the coast of the small port town of Geraldton in Western Australia, there lies an archipelago of 122 islands and coral reefs known as Houtmans Abrohlos. Home to Australia’s largest single species fishery, the Western Rock Lobster industry, the fishermen who drive this $500 million industry have grown their isolated community of colourful fibro s...

As Nyoongar Country morphs into Yamatji Country, off the coast of the small port town of Geraldton in Western Australia, there lies an archipelago of 122 islands and coral reefs known as Houtmans Abrohlos. Home to Australia’s largest single species fishery, the Western Rock Lobster industry, the fishermen who drive this $500 million industry have grown their isolated community of colourful fibro s...

This panel discussion explores ideas of safety, movement, surveillance, physical distancing, visibility and invisibility within Melbourne’s public spaces. Think Tank Moderator Nur Shkembi, artist, curator and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne, and Curatorial Advisory Group member for Who’s Afraid of Public Space?, is joined by esteemed local cultural contributors including Idil Ali, writer, p...

Tune in for a panel discussion hosted by Emerging Architects and Graduate Network (EmAGN) to hear emerging and established architects discussing future perspectives for young architects and designers looking to a brighter future in 2022.

The big challenges of our time such as climate change, biodiversity loss or social inequality are not directly visible and seem overwhelming for an individual to address. But all over Melbourne and Australia, there are people working away on tactics and solutions to make our cities more equitable and regenerative. From temporary events and activations to city-wide strategies, these actions collect...

What if we have enough vacant properties to house the 80,000 people on Victoria’s public housing waiting list? If you believe housing is a human right, this talk is for you. Renegade economist Karl Fitzgerald explains how the traditional methods of evaluating residential vacancy rates are inaccurate and favour investors. Urban geographer at the University of Melbourne Dr Kate Shaw weighs in on the...

Crossing species lines and national borders, COVID-19 has swiftly foregrounded the interconnected state of all life, human and otherwise, illuminating the myriad ways human culture is entangled with and dependent upon the well-being of more-than-human ecologies. As relentless change and unpredictability become ‘the new norm’, how might those other worlds, beyond the human, help to envision possibl...

As Amazon and other logistics-based companies further establish themselves as household names, their increasingly automated operations continue to redefine our cities and our lives. Behind faceless big-box facades, vehicles, workers and robots follow intricate choreographies to ceaselessly circulate goods. In this talk, panel members will discuss how design can illuminate logistics—that largely op...

Join collective being for a series of guided meditations designed to orient you to the present moment, ground your feet on Country, and connect you to your own body, to those around you, and to the more-than-human world. In the first meditation of this series, you are invited to open your senses to the sounds, sensations and beings that surround you. This is a meditative gesture of orienting throu...