Physically, temporally, and psychically bound, our sense of place is mercurial by nature. It shifts, expands, and contracts, becoming a synthesis of all that has preceded and all that is yet to arrive. Between ‘place’ and ‘djeembana’ is a lacuna in language. Direct translation fails. Djeembana, a word of the Boon Wurrung, is a place for community; a meeting point for the exchange of stories, rituals and knowledge. 

When we speak of place, we look to invoke that which djeembana signifies. Serving as the Fair’s thematic for 2022, ‘djeembana’ and ‘place’ will, together, through a contemporary art lens, address our sense of place in an increasingly unsustainable, globalised world. Melbourne Art Fair will command its programming to function as a locus for intersecting perceptions relevant to the current moment with careful examination of issues pertinent to both the local and global.

Recent tumult – social, ecological, and political – has caused an irrevocable shift in our sense of place, challenging established assumptions of known places and our role within them. The need for new frameworks to comprehend underlying histories as well as the complexities of the present is urgent.

Advocating for contemporary art as a force for social change, Melbourne Art Fair believes in the power of ideas to surface salient issues of our time. Privileging underrepresented voices, Melbourne Art Fair will serve as a meeting point for community – artists, curators, collectors and patrons alike – to redefine and deepen relationships to place as individuals and as collectives.

We thank N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM, Chair of the Boonwurrung Foundation and writer of the Boonwurrung language, for her consent to the use of the word Djeembana, which means ‘community’, in her authority as recognised Elder, Traditional Owner and linguist.