Angelica Mesiti to Present 2024 Tank Commission at AGNSW

Angelica Mesiti b. 1976, Australia Follow +

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) today announced its next Tank Commission, held in a repurposed World War II oil tank.

Angelica Mesiti, who represented Australia at the 58th Venice Biennale, will present her new video installation The Rites of When (2024) across seven large video screens from 21 September 2024 to 11 May 2025.

In The Rites of When, Mesiti, who studied contemporary dance at London's Laban Centre before turning to video art, imagines celebrations for the winter and summer solstices. The work includes dance, music, and drone's-eye views of cultivated and wild landscapes.

The work also references the Nebra sky disc (1800–1600 BC), which was found on Mittelberg hill in Germany in 1999. The bronze disc depicts the Pleiades star cluster—known as Subaru to Japanese and Matariki to Māori—used by cultures around the globe to help time planting and harvests.

Speaking to Ocula in 2018, Mesiti said, 'in my installations, I like to work spatially, specifically thinking about how the viewer is engaging with the work, and I try to orchestrate a situation where there is a physical experience with the work, not just a passive reception.'

'Mesiti's video practice has long observed the intricacies of human behaviour, utilising choreography and performance with an increasing attention to the natural world,' said AGNSW director Michael Brand.

'This work marks an important shift from the role of the artist as an observer to her role as a creator of alternative worlds. Mesiti's interpretation of our globalised existence is a reminder that in times of permanent crisis, culture and community matter deeply,' he said.

Exhibition co-curator Beatrice Gralton added, 'as cycles of regeneration in nature have shifted out of sync, and people around the globe increasingly live in urbanised environments, Mesiti encourages us to stand still—if just for a moment—to observe our singular experience and imagine our collective potential.' —[O]

Main image: Angelica Mesiti in the Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Naala Badu building. Photo: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter.