Program

An innovative mixed reality concert created by legendary composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto in collaboration with Tin Drum.

Sink your teeth into this cheeky new theatre show posing some of the most provocative and challenging questions of our time.

Chronotopia is a specially-curated exhibition accompanying Sim Chi Yin’s Asia TOPA performance One Day We’ll Understand.

This exciting exhibition offers fresh insights on science fiction. The lines connecting science fiction with ancient philosophy and mythologies are brought to light through the work of Asian and First Nations women artists and collectives.

Experience this ambitious world-premiere exhibition at NGV International, celebrating the illustrious career of iconic contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama.

Aki Onda's debut Australian survey exhibition, curated by Lawrence English at The Substation.

Expect the unexpected in this wry, somehow ridiculous but useful performance that challenges the safety zones of art and life.

Dive into a surreal nightclub experience where cabaret collides with chaos!

In Home Bound, diverse rope materials and practices are woven together to create a massive social tapestry. Members of different communities who do not typically share the same space collaborate to build a giant rope installation.

An awe-inspiring exhibition and workshop series by legendary Tagata Moana (People of the Pacific) art collective, the Pacific Sisters.

A large-scale video installation takes place simultaneously on the screens of Federation Square and a civic location in Jeonju.

The shadows of children in Korea have flown across hemispheres. Can you find where they’ve landed?

Zoot suits and ActiVAtions take over Smorgon Family Plaza

Shadows in Twin Cities brings together children from Jeonju (Korea) and Melbourne (Australia) in unusual conversations between each other and their city landscapes.

Consume the sights, tastes and sounds of Punjab in this vibrant installation and performance series about migration and resilience.

Exclusively yours after-hours, explore the largest exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s work ever staged in Australia in a world-premiere exhibition featuring kaleidoscopic infinity mirror rooms, dancing pumpkins and immersive installations.

Shapeshifters is Asia TOPA’s sacred arena for performers and musicians who fluidly morph between bodies, cultures, space and time.

A free, all-day event of sarapan (‘breakfast’) and performances presented by Nongkrong Festival that transforms the Square into a space to nongkrong – or to ‘hang out’ in Bahasa Indonesia.

Join artist Aki Onda and Curator Lawrence English in conversation as they discuss the inspirations behind Middle of a Moment – Onda’s first survey of his installation work in

In the first part of this 2-hour workshop, the choreographers and dancers of Gapu Ngupan (Chasing the Rainbow) will explain the background of the traditional movements and gestures and give an experience of traditional movement from Yolngu and Paiwan cultures.

Dive into the relationship between visual art and contemporary dance in this conversation between celebrated choreographer Melanie Lane, Jeff Khan (Creative Director, Asia TOPA) and Amita Kirpalani (Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria).

This workshop will empower participants to creatively explore electronic instruments for idea generation, be that musical or otherwise.

Explore the possibilities for play and conversation across hemispheres as you meet a new friend in Jeonju, Korea via a life-size video screen.

Pulau (Island) is a site-specific response to Yayoi Kusama’s iconic body of work.

A live performance exploring the long-underestimated complexity of the human-animal emotional experience of "cuteness".

Join us for a free, all-ages gig in the heart of the city featuring incredible international acts and local stars.

A contemporary Chinese cyber-opera that reimagines the connection between life and death.

Dance, body percussion, and stunning visuals, Bunyi Bunyi Bumi unites Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Indonesian artists in a groundbreaking world premiere.

Join our motley crew as they venture out into the ether where flight attendant Angel must face off with the greatest man of all time in a battle for the ultimate prize.

Asia TOPA opens with a landmark new commission by one of Australia’s most celebrated artists.

90’s fashion activists Pacific Sisters are renowned for paving the way for subsequent generations of Pasifika contemporary artists, including FAFSWAG, the South Auckland based Arts Collective that experienced a meteoric rise in the global arts screen over the past decade.

These lectures provide an insight into the work and process of one of the most celebrated performance artists of our time. They are for all to enjoy, whether you’re an artist, arts curious or looking to get up close and personal with our artists.

乒乒乓乓 pin-pin-piàng-piàng pulls together the most innovative club artists from across the Asia-Pacific to create a genre-fluid experience steeped in Naarm/Melbourne’s iconic rave culture.

These lectures provide an insight into the work and process of one of the most celebrated performance artists of our time. They are for all to enjoy, whether you’re an artist, arts curious or looking to get up close and personal with our artists.

You are invited to an audience with The Female Pope.

YIRRAMBOI’s immersive club night invites you to step into a world reimagined.

Gapu Ŋupan is a must-see Asia TOPA performance bringing together tradition with contemporary culture.

One Day We’ll Understand is a new multimedia performance exploring memory and inheritance through the compelling family history of visual artist Sim Chi Yin.

Sensing Dark Matter is a VR experience merging art and physics, inviting viewers to explore a speculative universe where dark matter and its gravitational effects become perceptible.

Enter an exhilarating speculative future on the stage of the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Turn up to UNITED early and join in the pre-show ambience with a curated set list by Gabber Modus Operandi.

Journeying through themes of migration, histories and inheritance, A silence that sits invites participants to bring family photographs and share stories through song, writing and speech.

Goldfish is a ground-breaking collaboration between celebrated Tasmanian puppetry company Terrapin and Japan’s Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, with performers from Australia and Japan.

Pioneering choreographer, raymond d.blanco reflects on four decades of making art with and alongside his family.

Process Lab is an event series bringing together creatives from the Performing Arts industry to delve into the creative process of making contemporary work. 

Zones for outer orbit sound worlds, post-world atmospheres and deep rift drifts.

Sydney’s celebrated CLUB 4A descends on Melbourne for Night Vision.

THE B_B unites performance priestesses Betty Apple and Betty Grumble in a transcendent dance ritual where digital mystics become flesh, pussy power meets sonic protest and the B-side of reality erupts into collective ecstasy.

Descend into disorder at the Australian premiere of acclaimed Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo’s new work

Experience a stunning choral concert bringing together musicians and singers from Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Sunny Kim's Ensemble Ochaye creates extraordinary sound worlds through deep cultural collaborations, storytelling and adventurous music making.

Join us for this work-in-progress sharing by the internationally acclaimed Queer Indigenous arts collective FAFSWAG.

Step into Sonik Ekologies, an intimate listening room curated by Liquid Architecture.

Encounter the infinite in this new audiovisual experience, created by Tamil-Australian electronic composer, Vijay Thillaimuthu.