MCA ANNOUNCES NEW DATES FOR THE SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES 2021-22 EXHIBITION: DOUG AITKEN: NEW ERA
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MCA ANNOUNCES NEW DATES FOR THE
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES
2021–22 EXHIBITION:
DOUG AITKEN: NEW ERA
[Sydney, 11 December 2020] The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) will present Doug Aitken, SONG 1,
2012/2015, installation
American artist Doug Aitken’s first major solo exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere. view, Schirn Kunsthalle,
Exclusive to Sydney, the exhibition will now open on 24 September 2021 as part of the Frankfurt, 2015,
Sydney International Art Series 2021–22. commissioned, with
generous production
support, by the Hirshhorn
The exhibition was originally scheduled to open in October 2020 and was postponed due to the Museum and Sculpture
Museum’s temporary closure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. MCA Director Elizabeth Garden, Smithsonian
Institution, courtesy
Ann Macgregor OBE said Doug Aitken’s exhibition will be a major highlight of the MCA’s 2021 the artist; 303 Gallery,
exhibition program. New York; Galerie Eva
Presenhuber, Zurich;
“We are absolutely delighted that the Sydney International Art Series will return in 2021 with the first Victoria Miro Gallery,
London; and Regen
Australian survey exhibition of leading contemporary artist Doug Aitken. Aitken’s multi-screen video Projects, Los Angeles ©
works and large-scale installations will no doubt draw local and interstate audiences to the MCA the artist, photograph:
Norbert Miguletz
next year,” added Macgregor.
Doug Aitken: New Era, the MCA’s exhibition for the Sydney International Art Series 2021–22 is
curated by MCA Chief Curator, Rachel Kent. This comprehensive survey exhibition spans 25 years
of the artist’s career including works from the late 1990s to more recent large-scale installations.
Rachel Kent first worked with Aitken in 2002 and has worked in close collaboration with the artist on
all aspects of the exhibition.
Aitken is internationally recognised for his ambitious practice that incorporates objects, installations,
photographs and vast, multi-screen environments that envelop viewers within a kaleidoscope of
moving imagery and sound. Based in Los Angeles, Aitken has realised museum projects around the
world as well as monumental interventions within the natural landscape and below the ocean’s surface.
Speaking about his exhibition, Aitken says: “My MCA survey uses many mediums. It’s open and
expansive, the kind of project I want the viewer to be immersed in. I see it as an exhibition that’s
specific to Sydney and the harbour – but, once inside, it could be everywhere and anywhere.
You could really fall into the works, get lost in them...’’
MCA ANNOUNCES NEW DATES FOR THE
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES
2021–22 EXHIBITION:
DOUG AITKEN: NEW ERA
Exhibition highlights include Sonic Fountain II (2013/2015), a large-scale sound installation built into Doug Aitken, NEW ERA,
2018, installation view,
a rocky, earthen terrain situated within the gallery. As jets of water spill from a suspended ceiling 303 Gallery, New York,
grid onto a reservoir below, their sound is amplified to create a rhythmic drumming that swells and 2018, courtesy the artist;
recedes in force according to computer algorithms. 303 Gallery, New York;
Galerie Eva Presenhuber,
Zurich; Victoria Miro
Also featured is Aitken’s most recent video installation NEW ERA (2018), an immersive hexagonal Gallery, London; and
structure encompassing screens and mirrors that viewers enter into through a tunnel-like Regen Projects, Los
Angeles © the artist,
passageway. This work is inspired by the history of mobile phone technology and its pioneer, the photograph: John Berens
American engineer Martin Cooper. From distant landscapes and satellite imagery to the repeated
image of a ‘70s Motorola phone multiplying and reflecting around viewers, NEW ERA considers the
power of communications technology both to unite and dislocate us.
On display in the MCA’s Level 1 North gallery will be one of Aitken’s largest moving image
installations to date, SONG 1 (2012). Originally created to wrap around the circular exterior of the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, as a 360-degree panorama where
it played from sunset to sunrise over eight weeks, it has been reconfigured for display inside the
museum. Harnessing a range of ordinary people and professional performers, the work features their
varied renditions of a popular song, interspersed with urban and digital imagery on a constant cycle
of play-and-repeat. SONG 1 forms a spectacular highlight of Aitken’s MCA survey and will be a major
drawcard for audiences.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres welcomed the return of
the Sydney International Art Series in 2021, noting it had always been a big drawcard for visitors.
“Since its inception in 2010, the Sydney International Art Series has generated more than $167 million
in overnight visitor expenditure for the state and attracted more than 2.5 million attendees, with over
229,000 overnight visitors coming specifically to Sydney to view the exhibitions,” Mr Ayres said.
“While this year’s series was cancelled due to COVID-19, we are delighted it will be returning with
two exceptional exhibitions: Doug Aitken: New Era at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia,
MCA ANNOUNCES NEW DATES FOR THE
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES
2021–22 EXHIBITION:
DOUG AITKEN: NEW ERA
and Matisse: life & spirit, masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris at the Art Gallery of Doug Aitken, Sonic
Fountain II, 2013/2015,
New South Wales. installation view, Museum
of Contemporary Art,
“Securing these coveted exhibitions reaffirms the NSW Government’s commitment to delivering Los Angeles, 2016–17,
world-class events for our state which play an important role in encouraging people to visit Sydney courtesy the artist; 303
Gallery, New York; Galerie
and growing the NSW visitor economy.” Eva Presenhuber, Zurich;
Victoria Miro Gallery,
The SIAS was created in 2010 by the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency, London; and Regen
Projects, Los Angeles ©
Destination NSW in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Art Gallery of the artist, photograph:
New South Wales, to bring the world’s most outstanding exhibitions exclusively to Sydney. Dakota Higgins
Sydney International Art Series 2021–22 Doug Aitken: New Era is exclusive to Sydney and opens
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from Friday 24 September 2021.
Tickets will be available to purchase from mca.com.au in 2021.
A selection of high-res images of artworks can be downloaded here.
For any media enquiries, please contact: Stephanie Pirrie, MCA PR Manager
E: stephanie.pirrie@mca.com.au | M: 0430 517 722 | T: 02 9245 2417You can also read
