The Testing Grounds is back!

The team at Testing Grounds celebrated the reopening of Southbank’s very own experimental art space last month following its big transformation.

More than 300 people attended the site’s relaunch on Friday, November 25, which featured a number of performances and installations in the new creative ad-hoc spaces.

Program manager Arie Rain Glorie said the response to the new spaces from artists so far had been one of sheer excitement.

“All the artists I’ve spoken to are just really excited mostly because it’s robust,” he said. “There are so many things that you can’t do at a normal gallery or performance space so everyone is just super excited about it.”

The space now features four ad-hoc atriums or “cubes”, which are connected by what is known as a “creative superstructure”.

The four atriums include a clear cube (observing the process of making the art); a white cube (gallery and studio); a black cube (visual and performance arts); and an open cube (multipurpose, ad-hoc space for anything).

Arie said the approach of head curators Joseph Norster and Millie Cattlin towards managing the space was to allow artists to manipulate the space as much as possible.

“It goes back to Joe and Millie’s attitude about how to run the site as well and people are really excited that they can just drill into things. We don’t mind.”

The site’s former setup meant that it used to hibernate over the winter months and Arie said that the upgrade to site meant it would now be open to locals and artists throughout the year.

“We’ve had locals already bringing their dogs down and everyone uses this as a massive walkway, which is really amazing for the artists to have works on here because then you’re exposed to a whole new audience,” he said.

For more information visit www.testing-grounds.com.au