DESIGN Canberra Announces 2020 Programme

Taking place from 9 - 29 November, DESIGN Canberra has announced highlights for its 2020 program. The festival celebrates Canberra as a global city of design and a living design laboratory, and this year's centrepiece is a major site-specific installation by Australian multidisciplinary artist Hannah Quinlivan.

Returning for its seventh year, the fast growing annual three-week festival will present more than 200 events including exhibitions; talks by industry leaders such as acclaimed architect Michael Dysart, leading social commentator and business analyst Bernard Salt and internationally renowned glass maker Kirstie Rea; tours and unique access to architectural gems including the iconic Shine Dome, a film festival, workshops and the popular program of artist open studios.

With humanity facing unprecedented challenges including climate change and a global health pandemic, DESIGN Canberra's 2020 theme of 'Care' is intensely relevant. The curated program will explore this central theme and celebrate the ways that care and caring is valuable and vital during these challenging times.

"We are delighted to present a rich tapestry of events that explore contemporary design across multiple decades and disciplines," said CEO of Craft ACT: Craft & Design Centre, and Artistic Director of DESIGN Canberra, Rachael Coghlan. DESIGN Canberra 2020 has been curated in response to these challenging times to create a space to value artists and creative industries, to connect with community, and embrace unprecedented opportunities to rebuild and reimagine a sustainable and more caring way of living."

A highlight of the 2020 festival will be artist Hannah Quinlivan's newly commissioned site-specific installation titled Desiderium - a large scale ephemeral 3D spatial drawing that explores the social atmosphere after periods of crisis including Australia's recent red summer, the subsequent Covid19-induced health and economic crisis, and the fissures they have risen in our communities and collective mood.

Building on her previous work Arrhythmia - a collaboration led by Quinlivan at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016, Desiderium features a suspended large-scale light sculpture installed at the City Walk entry to Monaro Mall that forms the centrepiece of a vocal performance by acclaimed classical vocalists as they move through the space.

"This year has brought the realisation that the slow unravelling of our ecology has gained irreversible momentum," said Artist Hannah Quinlivan. "At the same time, the viral outbreak has compelled us to face with sober senses the fragility of our once taken for granted ways of living."

"After a year of grief and fear, this artwork asks its audience to take time to pause, to listen and hold close our ardent longing for the futures we once possessed but that dissolved into smoke, and to find the fortitude to care for each other through the uncertain future."

The new Design Revisited event series celebrates outstanding design in Canberra across different disciplines and decades. It offers an informal and entertaining design education with a range of talks and tours by award winning architects and designers exploring iconic architectural landmarks and contemporary design throughout the city.