Above image: Simon Terrill, Crowd Theory – Footscray, type C photograph, produced in association with Footscray Arts Centre, 2004. Image courtesy of the artist, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne and MPavilion.

Melburnians will celebrate the closing weekend of the inaugural MPavilion with the MRelay – conceived as an ‘intellectual team sport’, where a diverse group of speakers across a range of creative disciplines will pass the baton of conversation to one another over 12 hours on Saturday 31 January, from 11am to 11pm.

MPavilion’s senior curator, Natalie King, says that the event will invite “leading thinkers, philosophers, fashionistas, mavericks, activists, provocateurs, architects and doyennes to share insights and ideas in a marathon conversation relay”.

“Visitors are invited to either join for the full day or pop in to see individual speakers. We’ve curated the program around four tenets: Pavilions, Intimate Publics, Dreaming and Nocturne. These are drawn from topics that have unfolded throughout the MPavilion program,” King adds.

Speakers under the Pavilions section will include Naomi Milgrom (MPavilion founder), leading Australian architect Sean Godsell, Dan Honey from the Office of Good Design, John Denton (director of Denton Corker Marshall), contemporary artist Callum Morton and Leon van Schaik, professor of architecture at RMIT University.

The Intimate Publics section of the MRelay will be hosted by comedian and radio presenter Jane Kennedy, with guest speakers including Martin Foley, new Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, artist and digital ethnographer Larissa Hjorth, architect and City of Melbourne urban designer urban designer Rob Adams, editor of Filmme Fatales, Brodie Lancaster, former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon, Melbourne Business School Professor Robert Wood and Richard Watts, writer, broadcaster and critic, host of 3RRR’s flagship arts program, SmartArts.

MRelay’s third segment is themed around the concept of Dreaming, looking at imaginative interactions within space. Dreaming will be hosted by Indigenous soprano, actor, composer and playwright Deborah Cheetham. Guest speakers will include 87 years young philanthropic advocate Betty Amsden, emerging artist Andrew Fraser, author and academic Tony Birch, Dr Emma Burrows of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, artistic director of Liquid Architecture festival of experimental sound art Joel Stern, Speakeasy Cinema creator Ghita Loebenstein and veteran actor Jack Charles.

The final series of MRelay conversations is entitled ‘Nocturne’ and will be hosted by Wheeler Centre director Michael Williams. The section will include photographer Bill Henson, mathematician and professor of statistics Sally Wood, dramatic auteur Sophia Brous, internationally acclaimed artist, dancer and choreographer Atlanta Eke, and Barrie Barton, social entrepreneur and founder of Right Angle Studio.

For further details of the MRelay program and information on the MPavilion, visit www.mpavilion.org.