Coming Soon: A Debris-Strewn Post-Disaster Landscape Is Taking Over Mona's Former Library Space for a Year
French artist Théo Mercier is creating sand sculpture 'DARK TOURISM' to comment on travel to locations with grim histories, as well as the planet's changing climate.
The end of the world is coming to Mona. Where a library once sat, nothing but sand, water and debris will soon lurk. The Tasmanian gallery is remaining where it is. Dark Mofo is still on the calendar for 2025. And no, after becoming the first museum to receive Wu-Tang Clan's rare Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album on loan earlier in 2024, it isn't dropping the mic and saying goodbye. For a year, however, the inimitable Australian venue will fill part of its interior with a post-disaster landscape, all thanks to a new sculpture by French artist Théo Mercier.
Commissioned specifically for the site, DARK TOURISM will display from Saturday, February 15, 2025–Monday, February 16, 2026 in Mona's former library. Using only sand and water, Mercier will create a scene that looks like the aftermath of a disaster — hence the debris — with the piece commenting on humanity's need travel to locations with grim histories, as well as making a statement about planet's changing climate.
Gut city punch, 2023, French Pavillon, Prague Quadrennial 2023. Photo: Ondrej Pribyl.
"What does it mean to sculpt catastrophe, or to construct collapse? Like others who have painted ruins in the past, DARK TOURISM is about sculpting contemporary ruins, which are also natural disasters," explains Mercier.
"Faced with this frozen landscape, humans find themselves at the heart of the devastation, as spectators and consumers. But there's something contradictory about this project, something romantic and utopian at the same time. Because the sand allows the world to tremble and shuffle itself in infinite figures."
Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy of the artists and Mona, Tasmania, Australia.
"When Théo was last in Hobart he said he was 'going for a walk'. He walked to the top of kunanyi. He's back, and he'll be doing something just as mad at Mona," added Mona Owner and Founder David Walsh.
Crafting DARK TOURISM at the venue, Mercier will be using Tasmanian sand to ponder how people face the worst — in the past and impending — with the tourist trade in Pompeii, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Paris' catacombs and Port Arthur given as examples of the type of dark tourism that the sculpture will be in dialogue with.
"Théo's work is a reminder of the fragile and temporary nature of the world around us, and of life itself," notes Mona's Sarah Wallace, who curated the piece alongside Jarrod Rawlins. "I hope visitors will be drawn in by the intricate detail in this captivating installation, while reflecting on the questions he raises about how we cope with catastrophe."
Théo Mercier, 2023 © Jérôme Lobato
DARK TOURISM will display at Mona, 655 Main Road, Berriedale, Tasmania, from Saturday, February 15, 2025–Monday, February 16, 2026. Head to the venue's website for more information.
Top image: Gut city punch, 2023, French Pavillon, Prague Quadrennial 2023. Photo: Ondrej Pribyl.
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