The Transformation Of An Australian Underground Bunker by Argentina's Adrián Villar Rojas

Adrián Villar Rojas’ simulation of the End of Imagination, which will open at the Art Gallery of NSW’s Tank gallery in December. Photograph: Adrián Villar Rojas

Used for storing innumerable gallons of fuel during the Second World War, a huge four-storey-down underground space has been regenerated into an immersive and endlessly explorable art and sculpture exhibition. Showcasing the wider-scale revamp of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, this flagship of the entire $334m (approx £200m) project sees tne once abandoned and unused underground bunker become a point of fascination and intrigue for anyone who visits. Opening in December for free in the Sydney area, AGNSW expects the Tank Gallery to reach peak visitor numbers within days.


A relative newcomer in the field, Sydney Modern is built next-door to the original art gallery and has enjoyed a huge boost for future investment over the past few years. Now with everything underway, the grand opening at Christmas will be the summer's highlight for art lovers and bored schoolchildren alike.


The Tank Gallery has been curated by Argentina's Adrián Villar Rojas. He's not giving anything away until the big day but we do know that the exhibit is called “The End Of Imagination”. An ominous and exciting title perhaps leans towards the realms of where our thinking can go, the edges of our ability to conjure and contrast. In the past Villar Rojas has drawn on the 4D passage of time in which his creations have been designed to decay and crumble. The entropy of art perhaps is intended to signify the eventual end of all things. Even our ideas, no matter how well entombed, will eventually fade away.


Creating his sculpture work in between Argentina and New York, Rojas had visited the actual site back in 2018 to get his bearings and assign the right use of space. The creation and then instalment works have been underway since this time, pandemic aside, and finally the work is on its way to our eyes. It's less time than you think until Christmas, (so do us a favour and grab something from Amazon to support our journal – cheers, you are the greatest!).


Via The Guardian