Matt Ravier

Welcome to the 21st guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! May's culture selector is Mathieu Ravier: manager of Programming at the Australian Museum, board-member of Sydney Film Festival, and founder of The Festivalists (behind Jurassic Lounge and the Possible Worlds Film Festival, among other things). Every Tuesday of May, Matt will be telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him. On Sunday, I sat in the Australian Museum with Aunty Gail Manderson and two Aboriginal activists (Wailwaan/Yuin man Laurance Magick Dennis and Wiradjuri/Ngemba woman Fleur Magick Dennis), and made a yarning stick. Making a yarning stick is more than a bit of craft. A wooden stick is covered in woven fibre (I used raffia) using a simple blanket stitch; then various items collected on country are attached (I used gum nuts, as well as feathers from rosellas, emus and owls). The stick is used in gatherings, passed along to determine which speaker has the floor, and to ensure everyone has a voice. A great metaphor for National Reconciliation Week, then. But making the stick is really an excuse to sit and listen to stories from the land, voices too rarely heard in daily Australian life.   Making a yarning stick at the Australian Museum     I heard about Aunty Gail’s reconnection to culture late in life, decades after being removed from her Aborigina

Welcome to the 20th guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! May's culture selector is Mathieu Ravier: manager of Programming at the Australian Museum, board-member of Sydney Film Festival, and founder of The Festivalists (behind Jurassic Lounge and the Possible Worlds Film Festival, among other things). Every Tuesday of May, Matt will be telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him. When you rock up to the address listed on your ticket, it’s still hard to know what to expect from Art Heist, a new interactive experience from Jetpack Theatre. Inside an empty shopfront in Dulwich Hill, we are greeted by director Jim Fishwick. After signing a waiver, we put our valuables in a safe and are given a quickfire mission brief. Our objective is to steal a valuable painting (‘The Fat Dragon’) from under the noses of two quick-footed security guards and return it to its rightful owner. We know the gallery closes in 10 minutes, after which we have half an hour to complete our mission. We barely have time to process this information before we step through a door and into the gallery. The fictional gallery is a creation of the Jetpack collective, complete with home-made contemporary art and hilarious labels that send up the pretensions of certain artists and galleries. Immediately we spot the prize, an ugly figurative masterpiece protected

Welcome to the 19th guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! May's culture selector is Mathieu Ravier: manager of Programming at the Australian Museum, board-member of Sydney Film Festival, and founder of The Festivalists (behind Jurassic Lounge and the Possible Worlds Film Festival, among other things). Every Tuesday of May, Matt will be telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him. I’ve been thinking a lot about the personal significance of objects lately. For most of my life, objects have been more of a burden than something to covet, cherish or value. Having lived in seven different countries, I’ve had to move quite often, without the luxury to take belongings along. Over time, I’ve learned not to accumulate, to let go of possessions easily, to collect experiences rather than things. Everything I owned felt like an anchor weighing me down, a reason to stay behind rather than explore the world. Even when I decided to settle down in Sydney a few years ago, I was reluctant to acquire objects. I let go of semi-disposable furniture when I moved in with my partner (who is very attached to his designer pieces). I don’t collect books, records or DVDs (though my devices are full of transient novels, music and movies). I’m not poor, but everything I own fits inside a suitcase. I cherish memories and photographs but very little of w

Welcome to the 18th guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! May's culture selector is Mathieu Ravier: manager of Programming at the Australian Museum, board-member of Sydney Film Festival, and founder of The Festivalists (behind Jurassic Lounge and the Possible Worlds Film Festival, among other things). Every Tuesday of May, Matt will be telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him. Rafael Bonachela introduces every Sydney Dance Company performance in person. The artistic director stands not on the stage but with the audience. He speaks about the work informally, smiling excitedly like a friend who wants to show you something he’s made, proud and nervous at the same time. We could be in his living room. Our front row seats – a belated Christmas present from my partner Stephen – means we’re close enough to see the unfeigned excitement in his eyes. When contemporary dance can sometimes be perceived as elitist, cryptic or intimidating, these delightful intros remind us it’s more often accessible, intimate and fun. They remind us of how personal these creations can be, and the active role that we – the audience – can play in bringing them to life.     Sydney Dance Company perform 'Full Moon', Roslyn Packer Theatre Photograph: Pedro Greig     Orb is made up of two world premieres, ‘Full Moon’, by Taiwanese choreographer Cheng T

Welcome to the 17th guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! May's culture selector is Mathieu Ravier: manager of Programming at the Australian Museum, board-member of Sydney Film Festival, and founder of The Festivalists (behind Jurassic Lounge and the Possible Worlds Film Festival, among other things). Every Wednesday of May, Matt will be telling us what he loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to him. I’m always surprised when friends complain about culture in Sydney, dreaming of the spoils to be found in New York, Paris or Berlin. Even if you went out every night of the year, you’d struggle to make a dent in the sheer volume of culture on offer in this city of ours. Back home in France (where I grew up), culture and the arts are part of the conversation, a standard feature – for example – on every single primetime TV news program. But while we can improve the way we talk about, fund and celebrate culture in Sydney, I’m shorter on time than I am on options when comes to getting a weekly fix. Take Shopfront Arts. This creative haven in South Eastern Sydney has allowed under-25s to make innovative new work (not to mention meaningful connections) for over four decades, and yet I’d never sampled their work. My partner Stephen is the architect working on the expansion of their HQ in Carlton, so when we heard they were bringing Treats to Belvoir,