MPavilion summer program explores the theme ‘Vacation, Location, Staycation’

Highlighting the all-important privilege of taking a break, the MPavilion program will in January explore the theme ‘Vacation, Location, Staycation’.

The Lightcatcher will house a mix of talks, child-friendly activities, workshops, performances, and community projects including the chance to recline on an adult-sized playground, learn West African drumming techniques, and join a one-off book club hosted by The Wheeler Centre.

A special installation commissioned by MPavilion, Suspended Activation — designed by Stockholm-based architecture agency Secretary, will have visitors lounging in the Queen Victoria Gardens from Wednesday 19th January until Tuesday 25th January. Bodies of all sizes can relax, recline and recoup on a playground like you’ve never seen before. Made from repurposed materials of fitness and physio equipment, the woven platform will hold bodies in suspension, exploring the potential of what a playground can be, and what it can do.

MPavilion will be offering free children’s events during the school holidays. Seek and Find: Royal Botanic Gardens x MPavilion, all throughout January set off on your own adventure between the site of MPavilion and Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne using ‘Seek and Find Cards’ by Melbourne artist Claire Mosley.  For children with a green thumb, CERES Sustainability Workshops on Thursday 13th January invites children and adults alike to make their holiday a more sustainable one with ‘Bush Foods & Plant a Seed’ and ‘Design Your Own Wildlife Garden’ workshops. Journey to West Africa: An African Drum and Dance Workshop on Saturday 15th January will take children on a memorable journey of West African musical culture as they learn about traditional West African instruments, songs and dance, and enjoy the energetic experience of drumming and dancing in unison.

From Saturday 8th January until Tuesday 18th January, MPavilion will transform into a pop-up studio for architecture students worldwide for Venice Studio Melbourne, in collaboration with Scott Woods of Venice Studio and Melbourne School of Design. A suite of short design studios and public programs hosted by established and emerging international offices of architecture and urbanism will take place throughout the event, including public lectures delivered by MAP studio (Venice), Roberto Martinez, Francesco Dal Co with Luka Skansi, Serena Maffioletti and Daniele Pisani. This is an incredible opportunity for architecture students to work with some of the best in the industry and create design strategies combating the environmental issues Venice is set to face in the future.  

For Melbourne’s die-hard theatre buffs, this first time MTC in conversation event on 22nd January is not to be missed. The event will see Melbourne Theatre Company share the backstory of a NEXT STAGE original play with an audience ahead of its main stage premiere during the 2022 MTC season. For the literary fiends, January’s Book Club on Monday 24th January, hosted by The Wheeler Centre, will focus on shortlisted titles from the fiction category of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for 2022.

Order up, Mashriq is a contemporary installation piece—a public, remote, and monumental sculpture that will display iconic sounds enveloped by the barren landscape of the Mashriq area (a region of the Middle East). For one night only on Friday 28th January, MPavilion will transform into a thrillingly dystopian space of strange sounds and alluring, disorientating visions.

In keeping with the immersive art theme over the weekend, on Saturday 29th January, MPavilion will be converted into a consultation service and co-learning space with the Beyond Human Travel Agency, designed to question our methods and motivations for travel by multi-dimensional Melbourne artist Lichen Kelp. On Sunday 30th January, Music in Exile returns to MPavilion for their annual 2022 Jump-up Jamboree! an inclusive, accessible and welcoming celebration to join together in celebrating the year ahead. Featuring Ajak Kwai + band (live), and DJ Kgomotso Sekhu.

Along with a jam-packed month of events, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has commissioned Zorro Cube —designed by Like Butter and MUSK Architecture, further supporting Australian design. The playful object is designed to be interacted with by people of all ages, through reflection it will bring the light from the canopy structure of MAP studio’s MPavilion down and be a piece all visitors and performers can lounge on and interact with.

Whether you’re staying local or heading out of the city, culture-seekers can enjoy MPavilion’s collection of podcasts including MPavilion 2021 architect MAP studio and Naomi Milgrom in conversation, hosted by Peter Maddison; Feral Trade: A Global Trade of Goods by Hand featuring Kate Rich—founder of grocery business and public experiment Feral Trade—in conversation with designer, writer and architect Rory Hyde; and a special release of Wish You Were Here: Shifting the Tourist Gaze Toward the Local on Tuesday 25th January with Maldivian artists Kareen Adams and Mo Manal.

MPavilion is open free to the public in the Queen Victoria Gardens, Melbourne until Sunday 24th April 2022.

For further information including program times, please visit www.mpavilion.org 

Images from top: MPavilion by MAP studio opening event; Suspended Activation by Secretary; Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) in Conversation