The schedule of curated events released by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation for MPavilion reveals a packed program inspired by ‘Space: Experiments in Time’.

Beginning Monday 1 March until Thursday 1 April, the program promises to push concepts of space and time to the limit with several curated events including Hair Salon, Melbourne Design Week featuring documentary films, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions, Empty Spaces Summit, yoga sessions and a string of online events among many more.

MPavilion, Melbourne’s celebrated culture, design, and architecture laboratory, is taking place at MPavilion Parkade on 34 Little Collins Street.

Hair Salon

MPavilion Parkade will be transformed into a real hair salon designed by local artist and writer Atong Atem with Where Are You From? founder Sabina McKenna. Featuring sessions hosted by HoMie, Short Back & Sidewalks, and an array of artists, musicians, performers and thinkers including Flex Mami, Ayeesha, More Blessing, Namila Benson, and DJ’s Darcy Justice and Claudette Justice, Hair Salon will be a site for conversations, performances, workshops and hairstyling sessions. Also, you can book an appointment through the MPavilion website for a haircut or braiding by a real-life hairdresser.

Melbourne Design Week

The highlight of the design week is the Australian premiere of White Cube, the Dutch documentary by Renzo Martens that features a design by OMA/David Gianotten, the architects behind MPavilion 2017 (now at Monash University). White Cube follows Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), a plantation workers' cooperative based on a former Unilever plantation in Lusanga, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Design week highlights also include Home Made, a panel discussion, and an exhibition curated in collaboration with New Architects Melbourne. The exhibition presents a survey of projects that reflect Melbourne's zeitgeist in housing innovation, including Nightingale Housing, Assemble, Property Collectives, CoDev, Tripple, and the Third Way.

Empty Spaces Summit

MPavilion’s Empty Spaces Summit is a week-long symposium and workshop that takes a close look at ruins, empty spaces and forgotten parts of Melbourne, and cities beyond. The summit is led by multidisciplinary artist Jarra Karalinar Steel and mixed-media conceptual artist Dr Clare McCracken, including Ilana Altman, cultural planner and designer at The Bentway (Toronto), Tania Davidge, Christine Philips, and more.

BLAKitecture, Cinema, Yoga and More

MPavilion’s March/April program also includes MTalks such as BLAKitecture: Indigenous ‘first principles’, Mirka & friends (a celebration of the life of legendary local artist Mirka Mora), The lost narratives: A live reading that invites architects and designers to relive some of their designs through written short stories, and MMeets featuring early morning yoga sessions with Happy Melon, rollerdiscos with Malt Shop Rollers, an L2R Dance takeover, a paper food workshop, and a special VIP day with HoMie. MPavilion will also be partnering with Rooftop Cinema to bring specially-curated film screenings for Topless Cinema.

With over 500 collaborators presenting 400 free public events, including talks, performances, kid-friendly activities, and installations this season, MPavilion has taken on a critical role in the city by adapting its program to support community needs. With the adaptive re-use of the Parkade car park and reanimating the MPavilions of previous years, MPavilion is responding to the challenges of the pandemic with creativity, community, and a revival of Melbourne’s outdoor and public spaces.

Jemma Read, global head - Bloomberg Corporate Philanthropy and an MPavilion presenting partner, said: “What makes our partnership with MPavilion so vibrant is the element of community engagement that continues through such diverse programming. We are excited by the creative and innovative ways MPavilion is leveraging architectural design and the arts to bring the community of Melbourne together.”

MPavilion is supported by principal partners, the City of Melbourne, the State Government of Victoria through Creative Victoria, and RACV.

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

Architecture News & Editorial Desk

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