The Regional is a major new commissioning platform developed by the Warrnambool Art Gallery to support ambitious new artworks by five leading contemporary artists working across visual and performance arts, sound and design who are directly engaging with the broader economic, political, cultural and artistic complexities of the regional, remote and rural Australian experience.
Emerging from a desire to challenge a widespread idea which too often positions regional arts practices within a dichotomy of metropolitan (centre) and regional (periphery), the exhibition prompts us to consider the accuracy of this notion. Afterall, some of the areas often considered the most regional and remote, in fact sit at the heart of this continent. If the centre is both here and there, where does it begin and end, or does it exist at all?
Warrnambool is a city located at the base of the Great Ocean Road on the lands of the Peek Whurrong and Kirrae Whurrung Peoples of the Gunditjmara, Eastern Maar, Maar Nation, it services the southwest Victorian region and boasts a population of over 36,000 residents (and growing), with established tourism and agricultural industries. The art gallery has a deep connection to the region through its 139 years of operation, making it Australia’s fifth oldest collecting institution. Today, the gallery centres artists in the transformation of our society by presenting new ideas exploring the important social, cultural, political and artistic questions of our time.
Against this backdrop The Regional places artists at the centre of these complex questions, turning to them in our contemporary moment where we are longing for answers to better understand the world around us.
Artists include Atlanta Eke, Gus Franklin, Paul McCann, Bronwyn Razem, and Peter Tyndall.
The Regional is proudly supported by the Australian Government through the Regional Events Fund, the Victorian State Government through Creative Victoria, and the Department of Education and Training, and Warrnambool City Council.
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