The City of Melbourne has announced the artists who will participate in the inaugural Public Art Melbourne Biennial Lab: What happens now? at Queen Victoria Market (QVM).
Thirteen artists were selected including architect Timothy Moore from Sibling.
More than 150 artists from around Australia applied to participate in the Public Art Melbourne Biennial Lab, an experimental temporary art project run by the City of Melbourne which will result in major new public art installations at QVM.
The selected artists are: Hiromi Tango, Jessie Bullivant, Kiron Robinson, Steven Rhall, Willurai Kirkbright, Sanné Mestrom, Jamie Hall from The Mechanic’s Institute, Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine from Isobel and Van, Jason Maling and Martyn Coutts from Field Theory, Will Foster from A Centre for Everything and Timothy Moore from Sibling.
In June the artists will spend two weeks developing their ideas in an intensive lab setting at the market convened by Claire Doherty, the director of Situations UK, and professor David Cross of Deakin University.
Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle said the presence of the artists and the subsequent commissions would attract more visitors to the market and add to its unique character.
“Melbourne has a long and proud history of fostering artistic talent and I’m pleased that the Public Art Melbourne Biennial Lab will be based at such a significant site as QVM,” Mr Doyle said.
International affiliate and co-convenor Claire Doherty has advised a number of organisations as curatorial consultant including Tate, Site Gallery Sheffield. In 2009, she was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Award as an outstanding cultural entrepreneur. Doherty is renowned for pioneering new forms of public art, including Theaster Gates’ Sanctum, 24 days of 24/7 sound in a ruined church in the heart of Bristol, and the year-long series One Day Sculpture in New Zealand.
Doherty outlined her principles of public art in a provocative manifesto, New Rules for Public Art, published in 2013.
“Believe in the quiet, unexpected encounter as much as the magic of the mass spectacle. It’s often in the silence of a solitary moment, or in a shared moment of recognition, rather than the exhilaration of whizzes and bangs, that transformation occurs,” wrote Doherty.
Claire Doherty will lead a conversation about extraordinary encounters in public spaces, including commissioning public art works, working with artists and major projects, at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on Tuesday 14 June.
Chair of the arts and culture portfolio councilor Rohan Leppert said the Biennial Lac gives selected artists unparalleled opportunity to develop their practice.
“Under the guidance of some of the world’s most renowned arts experts, these artists will create works that provoke thought and discussion around twenty-first-century public art,” Councillor Leppert said.
The works will be presented at the 2016 Melbourne Festival at QVM in October.
