Julian Charriere: Hard Core

Julian Charriere: Hard Core is the Berlin-based French-Swiss artist's first solo exhibition in Australia, on view at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania. Spanning sculpture, film, photography and installation, the show traces humanity's place in deep time and the way we extract, reshape and consume rocks, minerals and metals that took millions of years to form. Works range from glacial erratic boulders set atop broken, metal-repaired drill cores to sculptures made from coal, lava, onyx and obsidian, and a vending machine filled with fossilised ammonites. Charriere is known for fieldwork-driven projects that bring earth science, ecology and industry into the gallery. Hard Core extends through MONA's touring galleries, the Void and newly excavated areas of the museum, building on his long interest in glaciers, volcanoes and the materials that underpin modern life. The exhibition also introduces Breathe, a permanent installation embedded in the building's foundations that releases oxygen locked inside banded iron ore since the Great Oxidation Event roughly 2.4 billion years ago, letting visitors inhale air trapped in rock for billions of years. The exhibition opened during Hobart's winter arts festival Dark Mofo and runs through March 29, 2027. Set within MONA's sandstone galleries on the Berriedale Peninsula, the show reads like an abstract field trip through ancient rocks, glacial boulders and volcanic products, asking how humans have become a geological force.