Unsettling Queenstown: Australia’s Representation to the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

Design Tasmania, the state’s leading centre for design, will present Unsettling Queenstown in August and September, 2024.

Created by Julian Worrall, Anthony Coupe, Ali Gumillya Baker, Emily Paech and Sarah Rhodes, Unsettling Queenstown was selected as Australia’s representation at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition at Design Tasmania in Launceston will be its first showing since the Biennale, and its first exhibition in Australia.

Unsettling Queenstown draws from two real Queenstowns – one in lutruwita/Tasmania and the other in Kaurna Yarta/Adelaide – to explore decolonisation in architecture, and features a large suspended copper structure, two-dimensional paper elements, and multimedia.

Design Tasmania Artistic Director Michelle Boyde said that Design Tasmania was a fitting location for the project’s first Australian showing.

“Following the success of Unsettling Queenstown at the Venice Architecture Biennale, we’re excited to present this Tasmanian design project to a local audience.”

Creative Director and University of Tasmania Head of the School of Architecture and Design Profession Julian Worrall said that the exhibition encouraged reflection and conversation.

“Architecture is the spatial language that tells the story of Australia’s structure of relations to land, people and nature,” he said. “Unsettling Queenstown is a reflection on the impact of colonialism on First Nations peoples and the natural environment, encouraging all Australians to consider new perspectives and alternative futures.”

Unsettling Queenstown features a number of elements, including the Belvedere Ghost, a suspended replica of the arched belvedere of the Empire Hotel, which was built in the year of Australia’s Federation in the copper-mining town of Queenstown, lutruwita/Tasmania. The copper tube outline has been constructed at 70% scale, and invites reflection on the impacts of colonialism and extractivism on Country.

Open Archive is presented as ‘tactics’ installed on the gallery walls. Drawn from current architectural discourse and practice, the elements provide responses to the challenges of decolonisation in architecture, gleaned from architects across Australia.

The exhibition also presents two video works, each created to convey a personal sense of place. Sarah Rhodes’ Inhale/Exhale draws parallels between the healing landscapes of Queenstown in Tasmania, and the experience of being in place. Unbound Collective’s PERMEATE: mapping skin and tides of saturated resistance inhabits the mangrove wetlands of Yarta Puulti, over which Kaurna Yarta/Adelaide’s Queenstown was built, and examines the need for ongoing connection to, and protection of, Country.

Voices is an audio experience, available to listen to on headphones within the gallery. The recording features the voices of the people of the two Queenstowns, including artists, Elders, miners, loggers and writers, recounting memories, exploring the meaning of place, and calling for recognition and justice.

Unsettling Queenstown will be exhibited from 3 August – 8 September at Design Tasmania, on the corner of Brisbane and Tamar Streets in Launceston.

For more information, visit designtasmania.com.au