MPavilion has unveiled an ambitious, four-month public program of 118 free events that will activate the Sean Godsell designed temporary pavilion as a vibrant hub for architecture, design and ideas from 7 October 2014.
The inaugural MPavilion, commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, is nearing completion in the Queen Victoria Gardens and from its launch will offer Melburnians and visitors the chance to engage with a dynamic program of 20 talks, 28 workshops, 18 music events, 14 film screenings, 7 walking and bike tours, 4 art interventions, 2 dance performances and much more.
“MPavilion brings together architecture, design, art and performance under the one roof this spring and summer,” say Naomi Milgrom AO, Chair of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. “We’re aiming to create a new meeting place and cultural hub for Melbourne, engaging people of all ages with our vibrant four-month program that has been created working with 135 collaborators from Australia and around the world.”
The MPavilion public program has a number of event series presented throughout the spring/summer including MTalks, MMeets, MMusic, One Night Stand and the Cathedrals of Culture film screenings at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
MTalks is a series of 10 discussions held on Tuesday evenings from October until December, showcasing leading minds and innovative ideas. Panellists include London’s Serpentine Galleries’ Director Julia Peyton-Jones OBE, acclaimed architect and inaugural MPavilion designer Sean Godsell and MPavilion’s patron Naomi Milgrom AO.
Urban designer Rob Adams AM, fashion academic Robyn Healy and multidisciplinary artist and designer Callum Morton will also speak as part of MTalks, along with a host of leading researchers, designers and curators from Melbourne’s cultural institutions and universities including Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT Design Hub and Melbourne School of Design.
A series of art interventions called One Night Stand will respond to the transient and temporary nature of MPavilion and includes live art, sonic lullabies, ambient installations and guided explorations.
Throughout November, One Night Stand will transform MPavilion and the surrounding gardens with a series of art interventions that feature live art, sonic lullabies, ambient installations and guided explorations, including Leaf House Music – created over the course of one week, Slow Art Collective’s Dylan Martorell and Chaco Kato will gradually gather plant debris from the Queen Victoria Gardens to create an indoor installation.
The Melbourne-based studio Office for Good Design has programmed MMeets, a series of free gatherings inviting Melburnians to use MPavilion as a clubhouse, a meeting place and a starting point. Held on Wednesdays and weekends, MMeets is a program of unexpected activities promoting wellness and exploring the value and impact of design and creativity.
Highlights include a Make Meet event led by Internet and print journal Assemble Papers working with renowned illustrator James Gulliver Hancock, who is famed for his ambition to draw every building in Manhattan. Participants at this Make Meet will be guided in the creation of a communal map of Melbourne’s remarkable, yet underrated, civic spaces with no prior drawing experience required.
Also included in the MMeets program, and presented as part of Melbourne Music Week, is a special event Band Meet with Super Critical Mass held over the weekend of 22 and 23 November. This bell-ringing workshop led by international sonic project Super Critical Mass invites participants to respond to the architecture of MPavilion and its garden surrounds through the creation of original and beautiful music.
MMusic is a weekly series of free Sunday afternoon listening and picnic parties starring Melbourne DJs and musicians, presented from Sunday 19 October until the end of January 2015. On the third Sunday of every month MMusic programming is led by Melbourne Recital Centre, presenting free outdoor concerts by local and international artists including an improvised, green-screen mixing DJ-based performance by Misha Hollenbach and Conrad Standish over two weekends on 7 and 14 December. Other MMusic performers include Melbourne producer Andras Fox known for tactile, imperfect electronic music and Laila, co-founder of the monthly Day Care parties held on roof top of the Carlton Club.
Cathedrals of Culture is a six-part documentary filmed in 3D and directed by six acclaimed filmmakers in their idiosyncratic styles that seeks to uncover the cultural significance of six iconic buildings. The films, which premiered at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, will be shown at MPavilion collaborator ACMI as part of a program of 13 screenings especially for MPavilion. Melbourne-based thinkers DIS-cour.se will expand on themes explored in Cathedrals of Culture with a discussion evening and experimental audio tour of the urban terrain between ACMI and MPavilion.
Renowned landscape designer Paul Bangay, who has designed the perennial borders surrounding MPavilion, will lead a tour of his designs offering a rare chance to learn directly from this landscape maestro, who will offer advice on how to grow and design your own garden border.
MPavilion has also partnered with Melbourne Festival 2014 to present a number of talks, musical performances and workshops during the Festival dates of 10 until 26 October 2014. Highlights include a performance by New York-based Trisha Brown Dance Company, who will perform bite-sized pieces from the master choreographer on 24 October.
This lunch-time program will give guests the chance to sample three early works by Brown, titled Scallops, Group Primary Accumulation and Corners. Also part of Melbourne Festival program at MPavilion is two Westside Circus workshops inviting people of all ages to learn or develop a physical skill inspired by circus activity.
Other highlights presented at MPavilion for Melbourne Festival include renowned harpist Marshall McGuire playing both modern and baroque harps; Jun Tian Yun He Ensemble performing traditional and modern Chinese compositions; and an intimate concert by award-winning Melbourne wind quintet The Arcadia Quartet.
MPavilion runs from 7 October 2014 to 1 February 2015 For more information, visit: www.mpavilion.org for details.
Image: MPavilion visualisation courtesy Sean Godsell Architects.