(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Spending money on public art can be controversial, let alone when that structure will be torn down and replaced each year.
But the City of Melbourne has defended its new cultural installation saying its more than just a pretty face.
Abby Dinham reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
It's called the MPavilion.
Closed it resembles a square grey metal box, but the walls lift open and the roof panels rise to reveal the venue that will host events over the summer months.
The official opening was serenaded by the Dhungala Children's Choir, performing a song composed for the event.
Indigenous soprano and director of the Short Black Opera Company Deborah Cheetham says her song connects the heritage of the site to its contemporary use.
"I wanted to connect what this space means to the city of Melbourne to the continuation of this being a meeting place. For the Boonwurrung people the Woiwurrung people the Kulin nations in general, this space that we celebrate today has been a space where knowledge has been transferred, culture has been lived and this is for something like 70,000 years and MPavilion is a continuation of that."
The temporary structure will host art events in the Queen Victoria Gardens for four months, then it will be moved to a new location, while a new one is built in its place.
It's inspired by London's Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park.
But its architect Sean Godsell says this one has a distinctly Australian twist.
"I though it would be nice to bring a bit of the outback into the city and bring a shed, so it's a sophisticated shed but it's a shed and the shed on the Australian landscape that we see are still deeply imbeded in the Australian DNA."
Mr Godsell says he drew inspiration for the design from a childhood toy.
"To build a building with an agenda to move it and to then rebuild it makes the whole thing a different kind of problem and a slightly more complicated one. So it made us think about prefabrication, about good ol' Meccano how you can bolt things together and unbolt them."
Every year for the next four years a new architect will be commissioned to designed the next temporary pavilion.
The old structure will be relocated for use somewhere else in the city.
The Lord Mayor's office says the project cost $1.3 million over four years.
Controversy over the cost of public art flared earlier this year when Sydney unveiled plans for the $3.5 million Cloud Arch.
But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says the MPavilion is more than an art installation.
"They are beautiful structures in themselves, they are contributions to art and design but they're also activity hubs where people will come to enjoy themselves to listen to talks to see exhibitions to have meetings and that's the importance of these pavilions."
The current MPavillion is open until February next year.
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