Museum of Old and New Art, Art museum in Hobart, Australia.
The Museum of Old and New Art is an art museum on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, designed by Nonda Katsalidis and built largely underground into the cliffs. At street level it reads as a single storey; inside, a long staircase of pale stone descends in zigzag flights and square landings, each landing edge lit by a warm-white strip, down to three larger levels of labyrinthine galleries. The building has no windows.
David Walsh opened the facility in 2011 on the grounds of his winery, after running a smaller private collection in the same location. The underground spaces were carved directly into the cliffs along the Derwent River to protect artworks from natural light.
David Walsh calls MONA a "subversive adult Disneyland"; its central themes are sex and death. Works are shown out of chronological order and without wall labels, so visitors read about each piece on the museum's 'The O' app, choosing between a summary, curator's notes, Walsh's own opinions, quotations and interviews. The site also hosts the Mona Foma and Dark Mofo festivals.
A ferry from central Hobart brings visitors directly to the site in roughly 30 minutes, and the facility opens most days except Tuesday. The galleries are climate controlled and accessible, with lifts complementing the staircases throughout.
Part of the collection rotates through a lottery system where an algorithm decides which works go on display. This means no two visits are the same, and some pieces may remain in storage for years.
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