Semi Permanent returns to Sydney May 25th-27th to celebrate 20 years of creativity and design

Creativity and design festival Semi Permanent will return to its hometown of Sydney this May 25th-27th 2022, celebrating two decades since its launch. Taking place at arts precinct Carriageworks as part of Vivid Sydney 2022, Semi Permanent will present its biggest, most dynamic program to date, coupled with an enhanced visitor experience of workshops, panel discussions, performances and installations.

Says Murray Bell, founder and executive creative director, Semi Permanent: “Twenty years ago, we had this sense that as things increasingly moved online that the value of shared in-person experiences would become even greater, and though we’ve really embraced digital events, these past few years of separation have again made us yearn to be together in a room — listening, learning, sharing ideas. For our 20th anniversary, it feels right to be returning to our home of Sydney and to have a program that reflects the breadth, scope and excitement of the creative and design industries today.”

PROGRAM

The talent lineup for the Sydney 2022 event brings together a diverse mix of visionary talent in creativity, technology, and design. The line-up includes:

• – Mona Chalabi — visual data journalist, London
• – Ta-ku — musician, Perth, and artist, Melbourne
• – Sabine Marcelis — furniture & object designer, Rotterdam
• – Jonathan Saunders — furniture & textile designer, New York City
• – Yah-Leng Yu & Arthur Chin — co-founders, Foreign Policy Design Group, Singapore
• – Richard Christiansen — founder, Flamingo Estate & Chandelier Creative, Los Angles & New York City
• – Paul Cournet — architect, OMA*AMO, Rotterdam
• – Gracie Otto, Krew Boylan & Jessica Carrera — co-founders, Dollhouse Pictures, Australia/international
• – The Betoota Advocate — satirical news publication, Australia
• – Bunyamin & Lamia Aydin — creative directors, Les Benjamins, Istanbul & Dubai
• – Clemens Habicht — filmmaker, illustrator & graphic designer, Paris
• – James J. Robinson — photographer & filmmaker, Melbourne & Los Angeles
• – Hannah Tribe — founder, Tribe Architects, Sydney
• – Kris Andrew Small — graphic artist, Sydney
• – Balarinji — Aboriginal-owned design and strategy agency, Sydney
• – Damon Gameau — documentary filmmaker, 2024, and co-founder, Regenerators, northern NSW
• – Serwah Attafuah — multidisciplinary artist & musician, Sydney
• – Nick Thomm — artist, Los Angeles
• – Mridula Amin — photojournalist & reporter, Sydney
• – Jazlyn Fung & Tony Wong — typographic designers, Melbourne
• – Sam Elsom — founder, Sea Forest, Tasmani

Says Stuart Ayres, Minister for Tourism: “The NSW Government is proud to support Semi Permanent and I am delighted it is returning to its origins in Sydney to mark its 20^th anniversary. We welcome the eclectic, boundary pushing thinkers this event inspires, positioning Sydney as a hub of creativity and innovation. Semi Permanent will be a dynamic start to the Vivid Sydney 2022 season, which plays a key role in our vision to position.”

NEW FORMAT

Following the immense success of A Semi Permanent Hotel, Semi Permanent’s experiential 48-hour takeover of Paramount House Hotel in collaboration over 30 local and international artists, this year’s festival features an expansive range of touchpoints beyond the core talks program, many of them free to attend. These include:

• The launch of PERMANENT Art & Design Book Fair, comprising over 30 of the region’s leading publishers, artists and designers showcasing hundreds of new and previously unseen books, magazines, zines, posters, digital editions and more.

NEW PERSPECTIVES 

Each year, Semi Permanent takes the opportunity to explore a universal idea that most aligns to the challenges and opportunities of the time. For 2022, the festival’s 20^th anniversary, it introduces the platform ‘PERSPECTIVE’.

Adds Bell: “2022 is a demarcation in the evolution of both our purpose and our organisation. A milestone like this triggers a moment of reflection, imploring us to look back on our achievements and mistakes as the things that helped shape where we are today. It begs us to look forward, too, challenging us to think about where we might be in another 20 years’ time. And after two years in which our lives were disrupted by the pandemic, so too have perspectives on the future completely shifted.”

Fittingly, the year marks the 50th anniversary of art critic John Berger’s seminal television series and essay, Ways of Seeing, which exposed the hidden ideologies that exist in visual images, arming generations since with the tools to understand and dissect imagery. At a time when traditional binaries are being dismantled – whether sexual, political, cultural or creative – the year ahead seems a timely moment to reassess the lens that we place on our past, present and future, and to make room for new and varied perspectives.

Semi Permanent Sydney will be held at Carriageworks from 25th-27th May 2022. Tickets, including for the first time single- and half-day tickets, are now on sale at semipermanent.com