Marta Bogdańska. Courtesy: the artist and Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne.

It is well established that photography and film record the past, but these types of documents can also transform and dictate the future.

Only the future revisits the past brings together artists Marta Bogdańska, Omar Victor Diop, Nikki Lam, Tace Stevens and Stephanie Syjuco whose works look towards the past—via archives, institutional and museum collections, family histories, and historic depictions—to speculate future states and possibilities. Through deep engagement and considered intervention, these artists disrupt received structures and narratives. In doing so, they explore ideas of agency and the limitations of representation.

This exhibition questions the formulation of accepted knowledge and accounts, and asks: what role does memory and history play in forming our futures?