the future is floating – keynote talk
A keynote panel on January 16th welcomed a sold-out crowd to the Mari Nawi to see presentations by Marianne Nicolson (CAN), Megan Cope (AUS) and Leanne Tobin (AUS) and a conversation moderated by Clothilde Bullen (Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Exhibitions and Collections at the MCA). Discussion focussed on the idea of sovereignty as it may be enacted in contemporary art – even when it may be absent elsewhere culturally and politically.
From Clothilde Bullen’s introduction:
I believe all First Nations cultural practice has embedded within it the notion of sovereignty, as I believe it was not ceded in the first place. So if we take the starting point of all First Nations practice as not trying to achieve or seek sovereignty but as the expression of sovereignty it shifts the theoretical framework. Of course, our practices, whether they be as artists or curators, whilst highly rigorous both conceptually and intellectually, are never just theoretical. They are our lived experiences, our daily interactions, they take place within our families, our communities, and often on the very land that we come from and where we will always return to.
Below are images from the talk, all photos taken by Rafaela Pandolfini.
