Botanical Pavilion
To realize the ‘Botanical Pavilion’, Kengo Kuma worked alongside Geoff Nees — a melbourne-based artist and curator who has also worked on a number of architectural pavilions. Made in the japanese tradition of wooden architecture, where pieces interlock, held by tension and gravity, the structure at the NGV triennial features a tessellated interior lined with timber collected from trees felled or removed over several years at Melbourne’s royal botanic gardens. Some of the trees used within the architecture pre-date european settlement, while others signal the development of the gardens as a site of scientific research and botanical classification. Prioritizing natural phenomena over scientific order, the botanical species used are color-coded, rather than following any taxonomic order. this approach offers a statement by the designers against the reductive nature of science during the colonial era — a mindset at odds with many indigenous cultural beliefs and knowledge systems.

Waterfall
video art
FILE FESTIVAL
Waterfall presents the viewer with a single static shot of a majestic waterfall. Over the course of the piece a number of diminutive figures walk slowly into the shot on the gravel bar at the bottom of the falls. They have come to pay their respects to the waterfall, we might call them pilgrims – we might call them tourists. Their slow-motion performances appear to be a mixture of the comedic and the devout.

NanoDanses
FILE FESTIVAL

All the people we meet during our life time – what happens to them? An old woman’s memories of her past loves come to life in this magical miniature world. The gentle, melancholy story unfolds in real time before the audience through dance and live film. A set of highly expressive dancing fingers take centre stage. Choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey and film director Jaco Van Dormael have given their imaginations free flight. The projected miniature world that forms this ”nano performance” captures every nuance of human emotion. The audience also have the opportunity to follow, step by step, the making of the live film. The carefully crafted, diminutive stage settings are brilliantly expressive.