The building is conceived of as a curatorial apparatus tailored to support the juxtapositions of time, geography, scale, and media.
Adelaide Contemporary is a new cultural paradigm that places the idea of the “contemporary” within an expanded time frame linking the deep history of Aboriginal culture, the historical and geographic breadth of the Art Gallery of South Australia’s collection, the perpetual present of festivals and events, and art into the future.
A matrix of unique spaces unbound by disciplinary categories range in size, height, infrastructure and light quality, and provide infinite flexibility for work across media. Daylit galleries above and light controlled galleries below are linked by a ground floor Super Lobby – a radically welcoming extension of the city and its gardens. The street level Super Lobby is a valve between art and the world, extending the public space of the city between the two gallery floors above and below.
Talk to Bruno Mendes about Culture
It is a civic space, a 24-hour space, an indoor-outdoor gallery, an archive, a theatre, a classroom, a cafe, a bar, all at once. Aligning with the structural bays of the galleries above, the Super Lobby is organized into three bands: a flexible event, performance and visitor service space at the centre, a covered Outdoor Gallery to the east, and The Gallery of Time to the west.
In addition, the Performance Lab is a hyper-flexible space that can adapt to a wide range of spatial and functional requirements, allowing imagined and unimagined event and performance opportunities. Combining curatorial experimentation with new modes of education anchored by the Gallery of Time, Adelaide Contemporary was designed to be a cultural incubator for South Australia and the world.
Melbourne
Brisbane, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
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Melbourne, Australia
Dessau, Germany