Description

Heritage Coexistence is a series of site-specific events that foster conversations and experimental explorations around the multilayered heritage environments where they occur. Heritage Coexistence is created by Milica Božić, an architect, researcher and curator from Belgrade. Milica is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD Fellow at Politecnico di Milano and RMIT University, through the double-degree REDI program. Her research and practice explore architectural exhibitions and other temporary spatial interventions that produce experimental and open-ended heritage encounters.

For this edition of Heritage Coexistence, Milica is partnering with OFFICE, a design and research practice committed to advancing critical dialogue. The event will feature a discussion around the history and transformation of Yálla-birr-ang_Collingwood and extend to include the broader reflections on heritage matters in Australia, bringing together European and Indigenous points of view and considering its cultural, political and social implications. It will also include a spatial and temporal LIDAR installation, produced by Milica, extending on these topics. The event takes place in 3553, a newly opened gallery that offers a platform for local, national, and international practitioners, students, researchers, and academics to showcase innovative work, share insights, and engage in meaningful conversations. 

Some ideas for this edition of Heritage Coexistence are to question, in the words of Professor Laurajane Smith, the ‘authorised heritage discourse’ and ask ourselves how we think about heritage and to what end. What is the value of heritage for the present and the future? Why is it important to talk about it today, in Yálla-birr-ang Collingwood / Melbourne Naarm ? Which layers of heritage are we taking into consideration? What are the political implications of heritage? What is its relation with contemporary architecture in terms of value now? How can different modes of heritage coexist? What can we learn from each other? How do we challenge the concepts of heritage and open up conversations around it?

What's On

Heritage Coexistence Part 2: Stories of the City – Yálla-birr-ang Collingwood will feature a conversation with Michael McMahon, Sandra Githinji and Dr Jock Gillbert, moderated by Milica Božić, with the introduction by Dr Fleur Watson. The event brings together European and Indigenous architectural and cultural heritage perspectives and people while allowing other forms of heritage to emerge in the conversation. The idea is to approach heritage in an open-ended and experimental way. The intention is to spark a debate and pose questions rather than seek definite answers. After the discussion, there will be room for an open exchange with the audience.

Following the talk, there will be a visual heritage encounter and a social event. It will involve the work that Milica has produced as a heritage coexistence experiment using LIDAR technology and projections. As the sun sets, the point cloud scans will create an experimental experience of Yálla-birr-ang Collingwood heritage blending into coexistence, in this way re-thinking the hierarchies and layers of heritage as an extension of the questions opened.

In Collaboration With:

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  Michael McMahon

  Michael McMahon is a descendant of the Bundjalung people of North East-New South Wales, and a Melbourne-based spatial practitioner working across architecture and research. He is a co-founder of Beyond Heritage, a research and design consultancy, and currently works across civic and institutional projects at Wardle and is a member of Heritage Council Victoria. His practice embeds culture, materiality and environment to alter the way people experience and connect to place. He is guided by a profound respect for what exists and a commitment to embed, embolden and regenerate.

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  Sandra Githinji

  Sandra Githinji is a Kenyan-born, Naarm-based designer, curator and educator. She is the founder of Sandra Githinji Studio, an award-winning multidisciplinary design practice that has a strong focus on cultural expressions that centre an African perspective, both on the continent and diasporic. She is currently undertaking a Creative Practice Based PhD at RMIT University that explores the intersections between migration and indigeneity and how these dynamics shape home, not as a fixed location, but as a condition that is continually negotiated.

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  Jock Gillbert

  Dr Jock Gilbert is a lecturer in the Landscape Architecture Discipline at RMIT University. Jock’s research interests lie in community engagement, regenerative practice and Indigenous-led design research, focused around the development of green infrastructure through the convergence of concepts of place, Country and landscape. He is the co-founder and co-lead of the Yulendj Weelam Design Research Laboratory. The lab explores research through the question of how academics, Indigenous knowledge holders and design practitioners can work together to ensure Australia’s built environment responsibly engages with, reflects and supports First Peoples and their knowledges. Jock is a registered landscape architect and member of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.