Cementa Friendship

UPCOMING EXHIBITION
2 August – 27 October 2024

June Gollan The Nature of Things (installation detail) 2013

Cementa Friendship will be exhibited at Mudgee Arts Precinct from 2 August to 27 October 2024 and celebrates ten years of Cementa ahead of its next festival from 19 – 22 September 2024.

Cementa Friendship is a review and celebration of ten years of one of the most unique contemporary arts festivals in Australia. Curated by co-founder Ann Finegan and current Creative Director and co-founder Alex Wisser, the exhibition will explore and celebrate the journey and evolution of Cementa from the uncertainty and provocation of the first festival to the firm establishment of a unique model of collaboration and engagement that has broadened the horizon of art making for both artists and audiences.

This exhibition will invite artists from across all five festivals to date to restage their work in a collective expression of this journey. The exhibition will feature a selection of the original festival works to create a survey that outlines the course of the festival’s development and expresses the adventurous and experimental spirit in which a community of artists embraced a small working-class town and its community.

Archibald Prize-winning artist Blak Douglas will reproduce his footpath hopscotch work renamed ‘Copscotch’ which will invite the audience to ‘skip’ over the history of occupation. This work is complemented by Uncle Mervyn Bishop’s portraits commemorating the resilience of Kandos town Elders. Also included will be video works by Alana Hunt, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Linden Braye and Zio Ledeux. The Twilight Girls (Helen Hyatt-Johnston and Jane Polkinghorne) will mount a full-scale reproduction of their billboard from Cementa17, ‘Welcome to Cemental’, taking up the humour of skeptical locals whose pet name for the festival was ‘Dementa’.  

CEMENTA FRIENDSHIP
Opening 6:00pm Friday 2 August 2024

Zio Ledoux Andy in Kandos Cementa 2013