News
Jo Higgins
Published outcomes - National Gallery of ...
Published outcomes - National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: 'Air' at QAGOMA
ABC Arts: 'Air' at QAGOMA
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: Megan Cope is building a living, ...
ABC Arts: Megan Cope is building a living, breathing artwork on Minjerribah
Writings, Events
Jo Higgins
Exhibition essay: Topographies of painting - ...
Exhibition essay: Topographies of painting - Gregory Hodge, Sullivan + Strumpf
Writings
Jo Higgins
ABC Arts: Richard Bell at documenta fifteen
ABC Arts: Richard Bell at documenta fifteen

Biennale of Sydney

MCA GENEXT Goes Online

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I can’t imagine that anybody’s 2020 is unfolding in quite the way they had imagined. At some point I hope to have the headspace for reflection and clarity and calls to action (assuming we ever get to a post-COVID world…) but the temporary shuttering of the MCA has meant the cancellation of all my scheduled programs this year, including GENEXT.

Over the last few months I’ve been supporting the MCA Youth Committee and Young Guides, experimenting with new forms of digital communication, art-making, activism, wellbeing and youth-led public programming, to re-imagine GENEXT for an online audience, taking inspiration from the 22nd Biennale of Sydney and this strange, exhausting, uncertain time we’re now living in.

On Sunday 31 May 2020 we launched GENEXT Goes Online, which included live-streamed performances and panel talks, all MC’d by the Youth Committee, as well as a (frankly phenomenal) collection of digital content including zines, quizzes, artist interviews and guided making activities, VR exhibition spotlight talks, an Auslan visual storytelling workshop, interactive creative prompts and a live dance class.

At some stage I will find the time to come back to this post and reflect more thoughtfully on what I’ve learned from this experience but for now, I’d just encourage you to take a digital wander through the program here.

OTHER POSTS

20th Biennale of Sydney: The future is here it's just not evenly distributed

The 20th Biennale of Sydney has just opened, under the Artistic Direction of Hayward Gallery curator Stephanie Rosenthal. The future is already here: it’s just not evenly distributed runs until 5 June at venues across Sydney including Carriageworks, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Artspace and Cockatoo Island.

I had the opportunity and privilege to contribute to the Biennale’s exhibition guide, writing about 14 international and Australian artists. The texts are all posted online (though they only credit the authors in the hard copy version for some reason...)

Artists and links to text below.

Céline Condorelli, Structure for Communicating with Wind, from the series ‘Additionals’, 2012–13/2016, metallicised space blanket, curtain tape, approximately 320 x 400 cm. Installation view (2016) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Courtesy the artist This version was created for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Photographer: Ben Symons

Bhakti Kher, Six Women, 2013–15, plaster of paris, wood, metal, approximately 123 x 61 x 95.5 cm each. Installation view (2016) at Cockatoo Island for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, London and Zürich. Photograph: Ben Symons

Minouk Lim, Strange Fruit, 2016, mixed-media installation, dimensions variable. Installation view (2016) at Carriageworks for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Courtesy the artist. Created for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Photograph: Tim da-Rin

Falke Pisano, Embassy of Thought diagrams: The Real, 2016. Courtesy the artist

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I acknowledge the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the unceded land on which I live and work and I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.