MONA, TASMANIA
Undeniably eccentric, the Museum of Old and New Art (almost universally known as MONA) has ushered Hobart onto the world’s cultural stage. Opened in 2011, and housed in a Nonda Katsalidis– designed, three-storey bunker burrowed into the Triassic sandstone of a peninsula jutting into the Derwent River, MONA is a showcase for founder and owner David Walsh’s remarkable collection of ancient, modern and contemporary art, which is loosely curated under the themes of sex and death. ‘Monanism’ is how David describes his obsession with acquiring art. Not all of the pieces in his extensive collection are on display, but exhibits are rotated regularly to keep things (even more) interesting. Some works are so big and/or important that the museum was designed around them, including Sidney Nolan’s Snake (1970-72) – a 46m-long array of images exploring the connections between myth and modernity – and the Chamber of Pausiris, containing the coffin and mummy of a 2000-year-old Egyptian.