Greater Together at the ACCA

words by ben stephens

When you’re in a partnership with someone, it’s always exciting to see what they’re going to do next. Here at QT Melbourne, we have a number of partnerships that we get a little giddy about. Though when it comes to contemporary art, there are few that we get us stoked like the team at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

With a change in season, the ACCA curators are just about to throw the curtains open on their newest exhibition, Greater Together; something you’ll want to check out this Winter if you’re a fan of the contemporary art world.

The exhibition questions the way we work and how we could work better. The piece is pinned in a period of time full of uncertainty with social and global divisions creating the need to share knowledge and information, to better the world we live in.

The ACCA has assembled eight very different projects to complicate the ideas of authorship, collaboration and cooperation in a world where these ideas might come into conflict with one another.

Swedish artists Goldin+Senneby will relocate a giant mature oak tree to tell a tale of a dry cleaner who aspires to be a gallery attendant. The duo will also be working with local designer Annie Wu to create a uniform for the staff made from clothes left behind at the dry cleaners.

Over at Field Theory, a whole bunch of artists will work to turn the ACCA into a doomsday storeroom that’ll delve into the skill sets needed to survive an apocalypse. The project will welcome a number of local clubs and communities to host a series of workshops every second weekend to further the idea of sharing skills and knowledge.

A ninth project titled WORK/SHOP will take over the ACCA bookshop and draw out the ideas from the exhibition while playing with the idea of an exchange in a retail space… a meta finish if ever we’ve seen one.

For the full lineup of artists and more information, check out the ACCA website at http://acca.melbourne

Greater Together is at the ACCA from July 8 to September 17