For Kaldor Public Art Project 32, Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones presented barrangal dyara (skin and bones), a vast sculptural installation stretching across 20,000 square-metres of the Royal Botanic Garden. The project recalled the 19th century Garden Palace building where it once stood in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, before it devastatingly burnt to the ground along with countless Aboriginal objects collected along the colonial frontier. The project was Jones’ response to the immense loss felt throughout Australia due to the destruction of these culturally significant items. It represented an effort to commence a healing process and a celebration of the survival of the world’s oldest living culture despite this traumatic event.

In Residence represented the latest development in Marina Abramović’s forty-year career, an innovative new experience at the forefront of international art. Over decades of presenting iconic works that explore the physical and mental limits of her own body, the artist refined a series of actions to prepare herself for creative and durational work. She first shared these actions with other artists and performers – through workshops and residencies – and in recent works has opened this process to the public. Drawing from these exercises, In Residence was a new project for Sydney, in which Abramović was present on site each day, and worked directly with the public.