MCA Opening Weekend

Overview

After an absence of more than a year, the Museum of Contemporary Art is rebuilt, refit and ready to bring you more art than ever before. Its innards have been expanded, a white, lego-like addition fused to its northern edge and a cafe upstairs now offers you a view with your mid-art breaks. For its Opening Weekend, the MCA lights itself up to take its first contingent of new guests, with talks, art and events to keep you busy for four full days of artistic exploration.

As well as finally being able to exhibit a permanent collection, the Museum's first big show, Marking Time, brings together eleven local and overseas artists to meditate on the passing moments. Works include Katie Paterson and Gulumbu Yunupingu's cosmic confetti and Jim Campbell's nightime occupation of the Museum's new front lawn. Not to mention the parallel exhibition of Christian Marclay's the Clock and Celestial Radio's daytime dalliance out front of the MCA.

The weekend will also be marked by a series of lectures, tours and performances. Throughout the weekend, speed debating gives you the chance to test, air and push your own opinion about contemporary art. (Topic suggestions taken via this Twitter tag.) Indigenous dance performers perform across the weekend, a series of free artist talks, live VJ-ed art on Saturday and Sunday, digital art to play with, more than one discussion by artist on art, space and time ($15/10) and tours led by teenage guides, who will show you what they reckon makes them tick best after the refit. But with the scale of the program and with most events repeating throughout the MCA's vision of a four day weekend, it's a good time to drop in anytime and see what's on offer.