The Temple of Boom – a large-scale reimagining of the ancient Greek Parthenon unveiled at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in 2022 – has been found dismantled in a remote cattle grazing paddock.
A hiker encountered the pieces of the Temple of Boom while exploring the Craigieburn Grassland Nature Reserve in July this year.
The NGV first revealed the piece in November 2022 as the winner of its coveted annual Architecture Commission. Built to approximately one-third the size of the Parthenon, the piece’s lightweight concrete pillars served as a canvas for several local artists.
The work was exhibited for nine months before it was pulled apart and relocated to an undisclosed destination (even unknown to its creators).
It has since been found broken down into hundreds of stacked pieces wrapped in stretchy plastic and polystyrene, and roped off behind a buzzing electric wire.
Title deeds indicate the land is privately owned, and is in the early stages of being developed into a large logistics park.
The NGV commented on the discovery, saying “wherever possible the building materials are designed to be recycled, reused or relocated. The materials are in the process of being moved to a storage location.”
Source: The Age.
