Molonglo

The Monster salon and dining rooms at Hotel Hotel were a reinterpretation of the suburban family rooms of immigrants in Australia post World War Two. It was a domestic place, at once a parlour for receiving guests, for talking art and politics, a living room for lolling around by the fire with friends, a place for listening to music, and a room for sharing meals. At times, Molonglo gathered old and new friends here to exchange ideas and host conversations, poetry readings and performances. Fittingly, these gatherings often focussed on stories about immigration and how immigration increases the textures and layers of a place’s cultural fabric. These are important stories, especially in a time when the number of people displaced by conflict is at its highest since the aftermath of World War Two.

Gatherings included a conversation between the late and great architects Enrico Taglietti and Gianmatteo Romegialli, and an evening with music duo Xylouris White (made up of Cretan singer and lute player George Xylouris and Dirty Three member Jim White).