The famous phrase “dancing about architecture”, attributed to Frank Zappa among others, was intended as a withering lambast of the supposed pointlessness of writing about music. But perhaps dancing about architecture – or singing or clapping – is actually fairly reasonable and appropriate? And it can be done this July at the Open House Melbourne weekend.
Elsewhere, find a celebration of live audiovisual art, an artist who used Heide as a camera, and even the exclusive launch event for a stylish new performance SUV.
Winter in Melbourne this year is a feast of design and art. Here are four of the most exciting things to get yourself along to in the coming months.
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Now or Never
Now or Never is a daring young Melbourne festival, with programming that challenges convention and tradition across a range of artistic fields. It’s only in its third year, but already few Australian festivals can hold a candle to it. This year’s event has a theme of “I have seen the future”, embracing questions of utopia, dystopia, the hauntings of envisioned futures past, and what the rest of this century might hold.
Fans of design innovation will find artworks and installations that provoke and dazzle in equal measure – with many works on a huge scale. Take, for example, Dutch artist Boris Acket’s installation Einder, which transforms the interior of Melbourne Town Hall by recreating the unpredictable, awe-inspiring course of a thunderstorm using fabrics, light and sound. Another key work is MATRIA from Barcelona collective Penique Productions, which fills the Royal Exhibition Building with a giant pink fabric bubble, designed to foster a womb-like sense of containment, belonging and safety.
Also featuring is the hallucinogenic audiovisual projection Deliri at State Library Victoria from art duo Hamill Industries, also Barcelona-based. Now or Never also has a dynamic line-up of music, as well as workshops, talks and a range of performances that defy easy categorisation.
Now or Never takes place from August 21 to 31 at various Melbourne venues.
Open House Melbourne
A celebration of the city’s architecture, design and urban history, Open House Melbourne returns for 2025 with myriad opportunities to discover the secrets and stories behind the bricks and mortar that define our day-to-day metropolitan environment. This weekend-long event allows you to explore some of Melbourne’s most celebrated and historic buildings in the company of an expert guide. Ticketholders can visit all of Melbourne Town Hall, the Parliament of Victoria, the newly reopened Potter Museum of Art, the ANZ Gothic Bank, the Queens & Collins building, and many, many more.
Those interested in the art and theory of architecture can attend discussion panels such as Designing With Country, which focuses on incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems into design, and a special event as part of the Modern Melbourne series of talks, featuring renowned Australian architect Greg Burgess in conversation.
Over 60,000 people attended Open House Melbourne in 2024. This year it all takes place across the weekend of July 27 to 28. For ticket information and the full program, visit the Open House website.
Always Modern and Lumina at Heide
Heide, the famous art museum established by Sunday and John Reed in the 1930s, can be relied upon for thought-provoking exhibitions that both check the pulse of contemporary art and examine aspects of the nation’s art history. Always Modern leans towards the latter, telling the story of the first couple of decades of Heide itself via a selection of modernist highlights created between the 1930s and 1950s. That means work by household names such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Joy Hester, as well as pieces from relatively lesser known artists from Heide’s earliest years: Sam Atyeo, Moya Dyring and Danila Vassilieff. Always Modern runs until September 28.
Also on at Heide is the more design-focused show Lumina from Polish-born Australian artist Izabela Pluta. This immensely innovative site-specific work saw Pluta using the Heide building itself as a sort of camera. Over the course of a year, Pluta laid out sheets of silver gelatin photographic paper across the terrazzo floor, which then underwent transformation as light streamed in through windows and glass walls. The result is an installation that invites questions of temporality, memory and environment.
Lumina closes on October 5. For more information on both exhibitions, visit the Heide website.
CUPRA Terramar launch event
The design credentials of Barcelona-based automotive brand CUPRA will be on display at the launch event for the Terramar, a new SUV that blends striking design with dynamic performance, available in both mild-hybrid and petrol options.
CUPRA’s stylish new performance medium SUV is named after the auto maker’s spiritual birthplace: the Autòdrom de Sitges-Terramar, one of the world’s first racetracks. And the exclusive launch party in Port Melbourne on July 29 doubles as a celebration to mark three years since CUPRA entered the Australian market. TV chef Miguel Maestre is cooking up a Spanish feast to match the Barcelona-style party, and CUPRA is offering a chance for you and a guest to attend the event, get up close with the Terramar, and discover more about the future of the brand. Enter here.
The article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with CUPRA.
