Who’s Afraid of Public Space?

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? is a multifaceted project of exhibitions and programs exploring the role of public culture, the contested nature of public space, and the character and composition of public life. The exhibition continues ACCA’s Big Picture series, which explores contemporary art’s relation to wider social, cultural and political contexts. 

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? engages contemporary art and cultural practices to consider critical ideas as to what constitutes public culture and to ask who is public space for? The exhibition is inspired by and seeks to animate recent global debates related to the incursion of private interests in the public sphere, the politics of land and place, and patterns of urban transformation, gentrification and technological change.

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? also explores the ways in which public institutions, capital and technology impact and transform our understanding of public space, culture and values. As an extension of this, questions and ideas of community, collectivity and the commons also underpin this exhibition. The recent radical shift from, and oscillation between, the civic space of the public square to the virtual space of the digital commons—accelerated by the global pandemic, in tandem with questions of sustainability and access—has added further urgency to these discussions.

Through multiple installations and interventions, the exhibition reflects on the dynamic relations between urban design, safety and surveillance, as well as unsanctioned counter-positions of self-organisation, improvisation and play. Works in the exhibition also span themes of work, housing, democracy and social enterprise as they play out at the intersections and overlaps between private and public, corporate and state, profit and public good.

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? is organised according to a dispersed, distributed structure, encouraging a polyphonic and polycentric understanding of our increasingly complex public realm. Taking place at ACCA over the summer months, the project also extends across Melbourne at partnering institutions and in public space.

The exhibition at ACCA considers the role of the public gallery as a civic space—with ACCA’s four galleries transformed into spaces for gathering, education, reflection and debate—through a series of new commissions alongside works offering a conversational starting point to the extended exhibition, and ideas related to public space more broadly. 

Extending beyond the walls of ACCA, Who’s Afraid of Public Space? comprises artists’ projects, interventions and events in public spaces across Melbourne and online. Locations include billboards and suburban shopfronts, carparks, public squares and housing developments, along with media and communications infrastructure.

A number of satellite exhibitions and events will be programmed and presented by cultural partners over the Australian summer months, including Abbotsford Convent, Arts Project Australia, Blak Dot Gallery, Bus Projects, Chunky Move, City of Melbourne, Footscray Community Arts, Metro Tunnel Creative Program, Moreland City Council and Testing Grounds.

Artists: 
Guled Abdulwasi, Idil Ali, APHIDS, Beth Arnold and Sary Zananiri, Atong Atem, Timmah Ball, Joey Barrilo, Tony Birch, N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM and Sarah Lynn Rees, Jon Campbell, Michael Candy, Simona Castricum, Chunky Move, Boris Cipusev, Nicola Cortese / Lauren Crockett / Stephanie Pahnis, Ross Coulter, Sophie Cunningham, Keg de Souza, Field Theory, Eleanor Jackson, Aarti Jadu, Natalie Jurrjens, Laresa Kosloff, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Rhys Lee, Eugenia Lim, James MacSporren, Grace McQuilten and Amy Spiers with The Social Studio / Outer Urban Projects / Youthworx, John Meade, Clement Meadmore, Eden Menta, Kent Morris, Callum Morton, Jacqui Munoz, Jenny Ngo, James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, Tom Nicholson, Rose Nolan, Georgia Nowak, Open Spatial Workshop (Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Natasha Johns-Messenger and Scott Mitchell), Oscar Perry and Esther Stewart, Kerrie Poliness, Reko Rennie, Steven Rhall, Roberta Joy Rich, Anthony Romangano, Morwenna Schenck, Sibling Architecture, Mikaela Stafford, Hoang Tran Nguyen, Christos Tsiolkas, Isadora Vaughan, David Wadelton, XYX Lab, Jenny Zhe Chang

Who’s Afraid of Public Space? has been programmed through a collective curatorial model, led by ACCA’s curatorial team, Max Delany, Annika Kristensen and Miriam Kelly, and developed in collaboration with a curatorial advisory group comprising Dr Marnie Badham, E. Flynn, Eugenia Lim, Dr Grace McQuilten, Dr Timothy Moore, Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Nur Shkembi, and Jarra Karalinar Steel.

Find out more about projects both at ACCA and offsite at acca.melbourne.