OLDER THAN LANGUAGE

Presented by Salamanca Arts Centre Curator : Nina Miall | Curator – Public Programme : Jiva Parthipan Salamanca Arts Centre’s Major Curated Show for 2020 Bringing together stories of migration through a major exhibition and public program of talks, performances and events initiated by local artists and communities. Curated by Nina Miall and Jiva Parthipan , OLDER THAN LANGUAGE is the Salamanca Arts Centre’s major exhibition and public program for 2020. Featuring 32 artists from across the country, the exhibition and its accompanying series of talks, performances and community events explore the contemporary migrant experience within Australia today. Working across different media and modes which speak to their culturally diverse backgrounds, the artists reflect on their own personal dislocations of identity and how these resonate more widely in the shifting cultural territories of Australia. Through humour, political commentary, nostalgia and documentary, they explore notions of cultural displacement, diasporic identity, the instability of memory, the pain of exile and the impediments to belonging.  In the anniversary year of Cook’s arrival in Australia, OLDER THAN LANGUAGE also registers the impact of colonial forms of migration on First Nation inhabitants, whose devastating effects continue to this day. In bringing together these stories, the exhibition and public program consider how the perennial movement of the world’s peoples constitutes an age-old search for a place to call home, a migration older than language. Featured Artists Elizabeth Day Hoda Afshar Jenna Lee Justine Youssef Eugenia Lim Khadim Ali Khaled Sabsabi Zanny Begg Slippage ( Phuong Ngo & Hwafern Quach ) Tintin Wulia Shireen Taweel Georgia Morgan EXHIBITION DATES: Saturday 21 March – Sunday 19 April 2020 OPENING HOURS: Monday – Saturday 10:00am – 4:00pm CLOSED Sundays (except Sunday 19 April 2020 – Open 10:00am – 4:00pm) CLOSED Good Friday Please note: Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC) has made the difficult decision to cancel the Official Opening event that was scheduled for Friday 20 March 2020. PANEL TALK: Saturday 21 March 2020 @ 2:00pm FREE EVENT Join the facebook event OLDER THAN LANGUAGE Full Program Full Program available ONLINE This project was funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Council for the Arts. Image Credit: Slippage (Phuong Ngo and Hwafern Quach). Drunken Swine (2019). Pigment print, 150 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artists.