The Potential of Impermanence: Experiments in Ephemeral Architecture

BACKGROUND: The NGV Triennial is a major survey of contemporary art and design by the National Gallery of Victoria, featuring the work of over 100 artists and designers from 32 countries. Watson contributed an essay entitled 'The Potential of Impermanence: Experiments in Ephemeral Architecture' to the exhibition catalogue. CONTRIBUTION: Watson's essay posits that temporal architecture reflect architectural ideas that are 'responsive and socially tuned'; it represents new ways of making and thinking about the relationship between architecture and how people connect and share ideas physically and digitally. This essay follows on from the 2015 Architectural Design journal issue 'Pavilions, Pop-ups and Parasols' (co-edited by Watson with Leon Van Schaik), which features projects and people from across the world investigating this new interest in temporal architecture. Watson's writings on ephemeral architecture demonstrate her ongoing contribution as a critic and curator focusing on new ways to exhibit, experience, and write about architecture and design. SIGNIFICANCE: Watson was invited as one of around fifty thought leaders to contribute to the 688-page catalogue. Published by the NGV, the catalogue features essays, opinion pieces and other creative responses that offer divergent perspectives on the themes of Movement, Change, Virtual, Body and Time. The exhibition has been referred to as 'the most ambitious event mounted by the NGV and one of the most exciting exhibitions ever mounted in Australia,' and as 'an unflinching exploration of the modern world' (Delaney, The Guardian, 18 December 2018). It received extensive critical review in The Guardian and Architecture Australia and was widely publicised in Daily Review, Creative Victoria and Art Guide Victoria, amongst others. The significance of the catalogue - and Watson's essay within it - is attested to through its critical reflection of, and upon, the prestigious exhibition.