Gallery up in lights in Venice

Published on 31 May 2023

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Central Goldfields Art Gallery has made it to the world-stage – having been featured in the exhibition ‘Unsettlingly Queenstown” at the 18th Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.  

The design for the revitalised Gallery which is located in the original 1861 Maryborough Fire Station on Dja Dja Wurrung Country was submitted into the 2023 Venice Biennale by project architects Nervegna Reed Architecture.

It was accepted as part of the “Unsettling Queenstown” exhibition in the Australian Pavilion at the Biennale.

Each architect was asked to prepare drawings of their project (in this case Central Goldfields Art Gallery) which described the design tactics used to Indigenise the built environment through the project.

Toby Reed of Nervegna Reed Architecture said it was a huge honour to not only have the work featured internationally but to give international recognition to Central Goldfields Art Gallery – a project he said they have been proud to work on.

“As part of the submission we created three drawings - which included photos of the Gallery - that explained our design methodology for the redevelopment of the Central Goldfields Art Gallery.

“It detailed how we aimed to include multiple narratives, histories and points of view within the spaces, particularly allowing Djaara perspectives and history to connect via the cutting of spatial channels through the gallery and into the garden.

“For each drawing we wrote a description (below) which was on the wall with the picture and visitors could also take a copy to study at home. The wall display also included QR codes for visitors to look at more photos of the Gallery.

“Curators also produced a postcard of one of our drawings for visitors to take home showing a ‘worms-eye’ view of the Gallery, looking through the floor to the spaces above. The worms-eye view shows a new way of looking at the world as well as relating to the Venetian history of ceiling paintings by Tintoretto and Tiepolo.”

Central Goldfields Shire Mayor Cr Grace La Vella said Council was thrilled to see the Gallery redevelopment make it to Italy for people across the world to see.

“There’s no denying we are incredibly proud of our redeveloped Central Goldfields Art Gallery and to see it make it to such an esteemed international event such as the 2023 Venice Biennale is incredibly exciting and due recognition of the wonderful work Nervegna Reed did to design our new-look Gallery. The Gallery revitalisation and the connection with Dja Dja Wurrung culture will be further emphasised with an Indigenous Interpretive Garden to be opened adjacent to the Gallery in 2024

“Thank you to Toby and Anna and the Nervegna Reed team for all their efforts – not just during the development stage but for their efforts to promote our Gallery internationally.”

For more information on the Venice Biennale visit Biennale Architettura 2023 | Homepage 2023 (labiennale.org)

 

Background information - Tactic Descriptions from the exhibition:

Subtraction – Erasing or cutting through the colonial.

Subtraction as design tool – The act of Erasing through the colonial architecture in order to reveal and open up space for multiple viewpoints, readings, experiences, histories and stories. Subtracting and erasing (a tactic also used by colonialism to opposite ends) can be used as ways of investigating and provoking new heightened and inclusive visual and spatial experiences. The tactic of Subtraction can literally cut through the colonial architectural order, opening up dynamic ruptures in the historic order, while encouraging multiple perspectives, viewpoints and program possibilities.

In the Wartaka (coming together with purpose) we discussed this strategy (and the others) with the Djandak and Djaara Members design team. We discussed the idea of, rather than performing a ‘normal’ historic reconstruction of the building back to its 19th century state (and ideology), we would slice through the building, subtracting elements, to reveal and create spaces which connect cultures, multiple ideologies, beliefs, histories and stories: A system of design tactics which reveals new, multiple truths in the spaces (and unsettle the notion of a single dominant colonial ideology).

This process created building cuts and subtractions through the existing building and produced new horizontal spaces through the gallery to the Dja Dja Wurrung indigenous interpretive sculpture garden and its stories of fire and water, and vertically through the truss structure towards the bell tower which had never been seen from the inside before, and was not part of the original, colonial design intention.

Cutting Spatial Channels

Cutting and eroding the colonial spatial system

Tactic: Cutting Spatial Channels – Opening up the spaces in new ways to allow for multiple perspectives. Cutting and overlaying spatial connections through the existing architectural space. Eroding the colonial system in order to provoke new levels of enquiry and consciousness, allowing space for multiple, alternate histories, stories and viewpoints which are permanently linked to place and country.

Creating spatial channels for new spatial experiences within the existing colonial building spaces and fabric, offers new alternate viewpoints, truths and histories which are complex wrought and entwinned. The space within the channels is treated as form, as space-objects within existing spaces. These channels collide and cross in complex ways reflecting the dual cultures of the colonial and the Indigenous. Cutting spatial channels through the existing built fabric can help erode the ideology of the existing, causing ruptures in the spatial system (and its attached ideology), making way for alternative viewpoints, experiences, multiple truths and hidden histories. Eroding the existing colonial architectural form and system can provoke new levels of acknowledgement, enquiry and perception. The tactic allows for the suppressed but enduring link to place and Dja Dja Wurrung country, via the spatial channel connections to the Indigenous Interpretive Garden, which explores the themes of fire and water.

 

Displaced Geometries

Reconfiguring geometrical systems

Tactic: Displaced Geometries - Using geometry to question our reality and spatial reality. By a careful manipulation of geometry (part of the basis of architectural design practice) and our expectation’s surrounding geometry, including placement, context and use, we can cause a questioning of our spatial reality. Architectural composition as practiced in colonial architecture was part of a varied rule book which paralleled the ideology of the dominant political system. Displacing geometry can question these rules and the attendant ideology. This happens with object/context displacement, scale and other geometrical viewer expectations and relationships. Displacing geometries is a condition that can defy and displace the hierarchy of the colonial system, interrogating and re-imagining new relationships with the built environment. This can help make connections between histories and help Indigenise our built environment for a more inclusive future. 

‘Pure geometry’ can be refigured to engage the visitor in an intellectual interpretation of its meaning, whether it be circle, moon, sun or arch (which have been stripped, cut and displaced). These refigured and recontextualised geometries allow for diverse readings and experiences. 

Inside the gallery, the ‘white cube’ gallery walls are cut half-moons revealing the 1861 brick walls behind. The building spaces connect with the sculpture garden through geometrical subtractions to reveal history in a new way. The polycarbonate moon (and sun) wall faces the garden, lighting up within the garden at dusk like a big full moon or sun, connecting the gallery with the garden and providing an image that resonates with all cultures. 

 

 

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