Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) is set to open a new wing featuring owner David Walsh's "dream library".
Earlier this year, the museum unveiled its new AUS$100m wing following four years of construction.
The new wing, named Phrontisterion, is set to open in June and will include a vast library that will house Walsh's collection of rare books, maps and more.
Mona said the wing "will draw from Walsh’s collection of a big bunch of books". It said the wing "reveals a way of treating books as curatable objects rather than conforming to a rigid Christian schema designed long before any of us were born".
Phrontisterion is connected to Mona’s existing buildings via tunnels through the sandstone and is located beneath the inverted-ziggurat levels of Elektra, an amphitheatre artwork by Anselm Kiefer.
Walsh said of the new library: "I was always all-in on books and libraries. My first library card was the great leveller, the thing that gave impoverished child-me a chance to seek."
Mona librarian Mary Lijnzaad said: "If you want to know what David is really like, browse his bookshelves."
The new wing will feature sculptures and paintings by Kiefer, as well as a permanent installation by Julian Charrière titled Breathe, which invites visitors to breathe air that has never been breathed before.
Charrière's solo exhibition Hard Core will also be on display at Mona from 6 June 2026 to 5 April 2027.
Vast library to house collection of rare books
The launch of the new wing coincides with Mona’s debut of In Absence, an architectural installation by Kokatha/Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce.
Created in collaboration with Melbourne architects Aaron Roberts and Kim Bridgland, the nine-metre-high timber tower is inspired by traditional eel traps and is adorned with 1,400 hand-blown, black glass daisy yams.
Speaking about the library last year, Walsh said: "I really fucked up the original Mona library, and I wanted to get this right."
Images courtesy of Mona
