Cosmetics brand MECCA and the NGV have teamed up for a five year series titled the MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission which will invite acclaimed female designers and architects to present works of international significance.

The partnership with NGV is recognised as MECCA’s single largest commitment to an Australian cultural institution. The contribution from MECCA’s philanthropic program, M-Power, has made the commission a reality. The designers will be revealed at an annual ceremony coinciding with International Women’s Day with the final work revealed at year’s end.

World-leading Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao has been announced as the inaugural designer for the commission. The designer will create a large-scale installation combining textiles with architectural structure, drawing on her studio’s use of collage, drawing and model making. The commission will be a physical expression of Bilbao’s aim to free architecture from the conventions and canon of the 20th century; to propose a new trajectory that is focused on community, sustainability and ethics.

Bilbao founded Tatiana Bilbao Estudio in Mexico City in 2004 with the aim of conducting architectural design work from a position of social and ecological responsibility. The architect has worked on a number of social housing, urban planning and landscape design projects and has collaborated with a plethora of architects, artists, communities and business professionals to enrich Mexico’s built environment.

Tatiana Bilbao

“I am deeply honoured and grateful to have been chosen for the Women in Design Commission by the NGV and MECCA,” Bilbao says, who featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 and has works installed at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Art Institute of Chicago.

“This is contributing in many ways to advance the discourse of the importance of opening channels for people that have been left out of opportunities. When chosen, I took this responsibility very seriously and I am truly thankful for the opportunity.”

NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM says the commission will strengthen NGV’s commitment to celebrating underrepresented designers and architects of diverse backgrounds, genders and geographies.

“The ongoing Women in Design Commission will highlight the ground-breaking work of women in this field from Australia and around the world, as well as strengthening the NGV Collection for future generations. We are grateful to Jo Horgan and MECCA Brands for their visionary support of this Australian-first initiative and commend Jo Horgan’s continued mission to empower women in the creative industries,” he says.

“Tatiana Bilbao’s is a compelling voice from outside of the traditional canon of architecture, offering a unique perspective on both its history and its future. A woman from North America, an advocate and a spokesperson for change, Bilbao creates work that is as intellectually rigorous as it is visually dynamic.”

The series strengthens the NGV’s rich and diverse collection of contemporary design and architecture, which includes internationally significant works by Patricia Urquiola, nendo, Faye Toogood, Formafantasma, Neri Oxman, Teamlab, and Estudio Campana.

MECCA founder and co-CEO Jo Horgan says she is proud to have extended its partnership with the NGV through the commission.

“At the heart of MECCA is our striving to empower women and girls through our M-Power program to achieve gender equality, whether it be art, design or education. And, it is through education that sparks creativity.”

“We have had such wonderful moments with the NGV through our long partnership, and I am so incredibly thrilled that it has culminated in this MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission so that we can spotlight the creative minds of women in the design space. To collaborate with designers of such calibre, like global innovator Tatiana Bilbao for the inaugural commission, is truly so special.”

The 2022 MECCA x NGV Women in Design Commission will be unveiled in September 2022, and will be on show until March 2023 at NGV International.

Image: Supplied

Jarrod Reedie

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