Terra Incognita

In celebration, and with enthusiasm for the artworks in the collection, the exhibition Terra Incognita – an expression that refers to that “unknown southern land” which was postulated to exist to balance the weight of the Euro-Asian continent – is conceived so that all artists represented in the collection are included in a single showing. A large installation on the ground is therefore presented to the visitor, composed of 228 painted canvases, to create a landscape vibrant with colours, to be observed from above and from a certain distance, as befits sacred spaces and places one approaches with respect. This is a landscape that is made up of different experiences and expressions, which does not exclude anyone, but neither does it deny the possibility of self-exclusion.

So that the collection might reflect more of the recent art histories of Aboriginal artists, a collective of additional artworks by influential artists historically important both locally and internationally have been identified and reproduced in print, like paper evocations of absent works.

There is keen interest to encourage the Benetton collection to live long and to grow into its relationships with Aboriginal people. The celebration of Aboriginal painting and figurative expression that is at the centre of our intentions is motivation to fill knowledge gaps, and to acknowledge apparent terra incognita.

In conversations towards staging an exhibition of the Luciano Benetton Collection inside the restored Chiesa di San Teonisto, it was acknowledged and appreciated that the focus of the collection has been initially narrow – a telescopic focus narrowed in on some of the beauty and interest of Aboriginal lives. There is, of course, much more to share with local audiences in Italy regarding contemporary art and expressions of Aboriginal experience. Perhaps this terra incognita might be engaged to celebrate and expand upon the social territories; the political terrains; and the cultural landscapes that are experienced by Aboriginal communities across the Australian continent.

To quote Luciano Benetton (2016), the current collection of paintings is viewed as “a past that looks like the future. It is a collection to view while keeping in mind the words of Malraux: ‘the only language of painting is painting.’”

This exhibition and the collaborative conversations among its formation keep returning to shared love for the paintings and the artists who made them. We hope to grow appreciation for the work of Aboriginal contemporary artists through this exhibition. Our approach is to allow the artworks and additional artwork reproductions to centre the Luciano Benetton Collection on the artists that are represented, and to point to some potential future conversations, respectively.

BIO

D Harding was born in 1982 in Moranbah, Australia and is currently based in Brisbane, Australia. Harding works in a wide variety of media to explore the visual and social languages of his communities as cultural continuum. A descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples, they draws upon and maintains the spiritual and philosophical sensibilities of their cultural inheritance within the framework of contemporary art internationally.

Harding’s work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2021); Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2021); Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2019); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2019, 2015); and Milani Gallery, Brisbane (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016). Their work has also been included in group exhibitions throughout Australia and overseas, including at Tate Modern, London (2021); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2020); PAC Milano, Milan (2019); Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2019); Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2018); Liverpool Biennial (2018); TarraWarra Biennial (2018); Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); The National: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2017).

Their work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Modern, London; Griffith University Art Collection, Brisbane; Queensland Art Gallery ǀ Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

In July 2019 Harding was awarded a Doctorate of Visual Arts from Queensland College of Arts, Griffith University. They are currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at QCA.