Featuring the work of 60 artists and designers from 30 countries, the NGV Triennial surveys the world’s best art and design, across cultures, scales, geographies and perspectives. The NGV Triennial explores cutting edge technologies, architecture, animation, performance, film, painting, drawing, fashion design, tapestry and sculpture. Visitors will have an opportunity to look at the world and its past, present and future through the eyes of some of the most creative minds working today including NENDO, JORIS LAARMAN, and FERNANDO & HUMBERTO CAMPANA.
The NGV Triennial will present a major new acquisition of fifty Manga chairs (2015) and fifty Trace sconce lights (2016) by Nendo. This whimsical presentation represents the only international purchase of the full Manga series – a significant addition to the NGV’s contemporary design collection.
In addition, Joris Laarman’s Bridge Table (2010), Maker Chairs (2014), Microstructure Chair (2014) and Dragon Bench (2014), acquired by the NGV for the Triennial, together form a trailblazing collection of experimental furniture previously unseen in Australia. Each of these five iconic works was developed using generative design software and different digital fabrication methods to explore Laarman’s critical and creative concerns. The collection as a whole demonstrates the seismic impact of digitalisation on contemporary design and production. The culmination of fifteen years of exploratory material research and development of bespoke digital tools and machinery is evident in each piece
For the NGV Triennial brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana will Victoria Amazonica 2017 in collaboration with Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Alice Springs based designer Elliat Rich. Drawing upon shared motifs from across cultures and geographies referencing waterways, the collaboration will present a vividly colorful upholstered dome, a meeting point and resting place to welcome visitors to the NGV Triennial. Victoria Amazonica is a major new acquisitive commission investigating the possibilities for large-scale making, merging furniture technology at an architectural scale with intricately embroidered embellishment from the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists.
