Australian Center for Contemporary Art (ACCA)
111, rue Sturt, south shore
Melbourne VIC 3006
Australia
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ACCA’s two-year lecture series focused on ambitious, contested, controversial, genre-defining and defying contemporary art exhibitions and projects is now available in its entirety as free podcasts and illustrated video lectures.
The series began in April 2019 when Australian art collector and patron John Kaldor spoke of when he invited French artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to Australia to walk two and a half kilometers of coastline to Sydney’s Little Bay, this which gave rise to the first monumental environmental work monument by the pair: Wrapped Coast – One Million Square Feet 1968-69.
Defining Moments: Stories from the Australian Exhibitions 1968-99 concluded this week with a talk by Dr Mikala Tai on the founding of Gallery 4A, a Sydney-based non-profit organization established in 1996 to showcase and promote the work of Asian and Asian-Australian artists.
Artistic Director / CEO of ACCA Max Delany said the fifteen lecture series traces the legacy of artists and curators, addresses the critical reception of important selected projects and reflects on a wide range of exhibitions and formats that have helped shape contemporary art and culture Australian more widely.
“We are happy to present now Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Stories 1968-99 in its entirety, online. Presented by a diversity of commentators and protagonists, the series covers a number of topics and contexts, from the creation of murals at the Papunya School in 1971 that sparked the painting movement in the Western Desert, and the first Australian feminist artistic initiatives, up to the 1994 landmark. exhibition Don’t Leave Me Like This: Art in the Age of AIDS at the National Gallery of Australia, among other exhibits that respond to important moments and movements in the history of Australian art and culture.
“The Decisive moments is a rich resource, offering new perspectives and reflections on the game changers in contemporary art during the last three decades of the 20th century, ”said Delany.
The defining moments: Australian exhibition stories 1968-1999 the lecture series includes:
2019 season
Selected projects from 1968 to 1983 encompassing interventions in public space and remote communities, as well as projects in artist and institutional spaces. Available as a podcast on ACCA website and podcast platforms:
Jean Kaldor on Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Coast 1968-69, with the respondent Rebecca coates
John kean to Digging for honey ants: the Papunya mural project, with the respondent Hannah presley
Ian millis to Object and idea, National Gallery of Victoria, 1973
Peter Kennedy to Inhibodress, multimedia interference, with responder Sue cramer
David Chesworth to Clifton Hill Community Music Center 1976-83
Julie ewington to Almost anything goes: Sculpturescape 1975 in Mildura
Janine Burke to A room of their own: creation of a space for the feminist collective, with the respondent Helen Hugues
Anne Marais to Post Object Art in Australia and New Zealand
2020 season
New institutional models and contemporary modes of exhibition emerging in the 1980s and 1990s. Presented digitally in the form of video conferences and podcast freely accessible on ACCA website and podcast and video platforms:
Judy Annear to Popism, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1982
Peter Cripps to The art of recession and other strategies, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1985, with the respondent Channon Goodwin
Djon Mundine OAM to The aboriginal memorial, Sydney Biennale, 1988
Doug Hall AM on the First Asia-Pacific Contemporary Art Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1993
Ted gott to Don’t leave me like this: art in the age of AIDS, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994
Stephane Gilchrist to Aratjara: art of the first Australians, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1993 and running: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson, Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale in 1997
Mikala Tai on the founding of Galerie 4A and the inaugural exhibition 1997.
Access podcasts and videos from the full two-year lecture series here.