In Absence - This Year’s Architecture Commission Winner at the NGV
Occurring annually, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Architecture Commission is a nation-wide competition that invites architects and artists to design and create a site-specific work that is ephemeral in nature. Selected from five shortlisted design schemes, the winner in 2019, In Absence, speaks to the history of Indigenous Australians prior to European arrival. The project is a collaboration between contemporary Kokatha and Nukunu artist, Yhonnie Scarce, and Melbourne architects Edition Office.
Ephemeral architecture has the ability to crystallise an emotional and psychological response through only a fleeting experience. In this way, the winning work for the NGV’s 2019 Architecture Commission by Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office, In Absence, will take people’s breath away as it opens to the public in the Grollo Equiset Garden.
The NGV’s Architecture Commission is one that the entire country looks forward to, and this is validated by Yhonnie who says, “this commission is an amazing opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the [Aboriginal] builders of such infrastructure and their enduring legacies.”
The NGV Architecture Commission is supported by RMIT University, Macquarie, and The Hugh D.T. Williamson Foundation, and the competition process is managed by Citylab.
Designed as two black timber towers with expansive voids, the dramatic interiors are adorned with thousands of black glass yams by Yhonnie. “This pavilion does not recognise the term – ‘Terra Nulius’ ¬– instead it celebrates the structures that were built long before the colonisation of Australia,” Yhonnie explains
With a strong focus on collaboration and the community, in both a physical and conceptual sense, the pavilion is a successful example of ephemeral architecture. In Absence is underscored with a strong narrative-driven purpose and, therefore, highlights the histories of Indigenous construction, design, industry and agriculture before European colonisation.
written by : Eric Baldwin
29 April 2019
published in : archdaily.com
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In Absence - This Year’s Architecture Commission Winner at the NGV
The NGV’s Architecture Commission is one that the entire country looks forward to, and this is validated by Yhonnie who says, “this commission is an amazing opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the [Aboriginal] builders of such infrastructure and their enduring legacies.”
