Kandos welcomes Cementa24

This September the town of Kandos, on Wiradjuri Country in central NSW, will once again host an influx of artists and art lovers for Cementa24, this year’s edition of the site specific art biennale Cementa. The event will feature works by more than 50 artists who have been invited to respond to the town and its history and culture, producing performance works, sound art, video, photography, paintings, sculpture and more. Curated by Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Jo Albany, the festival will take over shop fronts, back yards, and everything in between.

“As a long-time fan and artist alumni of Cementa, it is an honour to be Lead Curator for the 2024 festival”, says Cunningham. “Being an invited artist in Cementa15 was a career highlight at that time. Socially engaged and site-responsive in focus, the opportunity ignited a network of collaborations across the regional arts landscape, which continue to be productive and inform my work today.”

This year’s events will include an Opening Night Extravaganza, featuring performances by artists and the psycho-blues-a-billy band White Knuckle Fever, as well as a host of participatory experiences. Not to be missed is the art scrum presented by artist Gabrielle Bates, an inclusive debutant ball organised by Georgia Banks, Noise Xhurxh’s immersive sound evening at the Kandos golf course, and a picnic with Victoria Spence in honour of our ancestors. There will also be a new work by Branch Nebula featuring Latai Taumoepeau, and an opportunity to attend the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation.

Cementa has hosted many incredible artists over the years, the event focusing on freedom of artistic expression. Cementa15 artist Blak Douglas has said that “Cementa is an integral arts link between East & Mid-West creative communities and has proven to have fostered numerous emerging talents. Arguably one of the most egalitarian NSW art events, merging established artists & curators with aspiring new blood, on the traditional homeland of the Dabee (Wiradjuri)”.

This year’s artists will include Tully Arnot, Laura Baker, Georgia Banks, Gabrielle Bates, Vanessa Berry, Jude Bowler, Branch Nebula, Nick Breedon, Michael Bourke, Alisa Burlington, Willowa Carter, Josie Cavallaro, Dominique Chen & Caitlin Franzmann, Jo Clancy, Kathryn Cowen & Gareth Jenkins, Kate Dorrough, Cherine Fahd, Ellen Ferrier, Maddison Gibbs, Emma Maye Gibson, June Golland, Doug Heslop, Linda Jackson, Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation, Adrienne Kenafake, David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton, Noelene Lucas, Tara Marynowsky, Catherine McGuinness & Diane Pirotta, Tommy Misa, Kate Mitchell, Danny Morse, Judy Anne Moule, Djon Mundine, Noise Xhurxh, Shani Nottingham, Jacqui O’Reilly, Venessa Possum, Damian Showyin, Victoria Spence, Lauren Swain, Peter Swain, The Useless Assembly, White Knuckle Fever, Marcus Whale, Miriam Williamson, and Brad Allen-Waters.

“Cementa22 opened my eyes to the kindness, generosity and humility of the regional arts community that I struggle to find in Sydney”, said one Cementa22 attendee. “The festival was a celebration of art in the purest form, people connecting and engaging with each other and with ideas, inclusive of the community and the landscape. It was a bubble I was regretful to emerge from”.

Cementa24 will run 19 – 22 September. For more information, head to Cementa’s website here, or check out what we had to say in our newest edition of Art Collector, on shelves now.