“Mad̲ayin: Sacred Maps and Stories of Australia”: this exhibition invites visitors to explore the experience of the Aboriginal communities of the Central Desert and Arnhem Land through artistic practices.
Works on bark, paintings on canvas, crafted objects, and contemporary practices bear witness to this relationship with the land. As cartographies where physical spaces and spiritual dimensions overlap, these works become vehicles for transmission through which knowledge, practices, and narratives flow in a continuity that bridges different time periods.
In the heart of the Central Desert, Arnhem Land, and the Kimberley regions, Australia’s First Nations peoples draw upon a wealth of resources that enable them to inhabit, understand, and represent the land. It is through sacred stories, rituals, and pervasive art forms that these communities manage to ground themselves in reality. In the Yolŋu language, Mad̲ayin means both “sacred” and “beautiful.”
