Trocadero Projects

Trocadero Projects We are an artist-run initiative presenting a diverse and experimental program of exhibitions and events in Footscray, Melbourne.

Join the Troc team!We’re currently seeking volunteers to join our artistic and operational committees across four exciti...
13/09/2026

Join the Troc team!

We’re currently seeking volunteers to join our artistic and operational committees across four exciting roles:

• Public Program Coordinator
• Exhibition Coordinator
• Communications & Engagement Coordinator
• Grants & Sponsorship Coordinator

Whether you’re interested in developing exhibitions and public programs, building audiences and community, or just generally supporting artist-run initiatives, these roles offer a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience while contributing to Melbourne’s independent arts sector.

We strongly encourage applications from First Nations peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, and members of the local western Melbourne community.

Applications close 25 September at 11:59pm.

Head to the link in our bio to view the position descriptions and apply.

For our second artist spotlight we spoke with artist Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon, about their exhibition 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙...
09/09/2026

For our second artist spotlight we spoke with artist Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon, about their exhibition 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 showcased in Gallery 3. 

We spoke with the artist about the process of painting rejection emails which are usually forgotten with time, and reflections on the broader institutions from which the emails are received.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 is available for viewing in Gallery 3, until Sunday 20th of September.

Stay tuned for the next, and final, artist highlight!

Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon

Trocadero Projects is supported by Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Cover image photographed by Daniel Coulson.

Trocadero: What made you decide to turn rejection letters, which are usually private and quickly forgotten, into the central material for this exhibition?

Rungteerawattananon: I started keeping rejection letters because of how quickly they disappear. Usually, you read a rejection email and just move on or delete it. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t let them disappear. By carefully painting these emails on canvas, I had to read them over and over again with every layer I painted.

Rungteerawattananon: It became a way of making the invisible labour of an artist visible—turning something private and intangible into a physical archive. Over time, the project became less about my own rejections and more about asking how artists become visible in the art world.

Trocadero: The exhibition suggests that rejection is often shaped by broader systems rather than individual merit; how has your own experience influenced the way you think about that idea?

Rungteerawattananon: Seeing the same body of work rejected by one institution and invited by another made me question what rejection actually tells us about the work. It made me realise that there isn’t always one answer to whether something is good enough. I’m interested in what happens when all these “no”s are collected together, and what they might reveal about how different institutions decide what they want to see.

Rungteerawattananon: I hope the work can also speak to younger artists who are spending years dealing with this hidden side of the art world.

We would like to spotlight one of our current exhibiting artists, Samira Khadivizand, about their abstract work in 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭...
07/09/2026

We would like to spotlight one of our current exhibiting artists, Samira Khadivizand, about their abstract work in 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦.

We spoke to Khadivizand about her homeland, and how her abstract works mediate the physical proximity and emotional impact of the violence in Iran within her paintings.

𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦 is available for viewing in Gallery 1, until Sunday 20th of September.

Stay tuned for our next artist highlight!

Samira Khadivizand

Trocadero Projects is supported by Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Trocadero: This body of work emerged from witnessing events in Iran from afar; how has creating these paintings helped you navigate the tension between distance and
connection to your homeland?

Khadivizand: Making these works became a way of navigating the contradiction between being
physically safe and distant from Iran while emotionally affected by the violence and instability unfolding there. Rather than resolving this tension, painting allows me to stay with it, giving material and visual form to an experience suspended between distance and proximity.

Khadivizand: Over time, 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦 becomes a record of this prolonged state of witnessing from afar.

Trocadero: Your paintings draw on the visual language of Iranian architecture while responding to contemporary experiences of conflict and displacement; what draws you to abstraction as a way of holding those ideas together?

Khadivizand: I’m drawn to architecture through its association with home and shelter, and to the
geometric language of Iranian architecture. Within this tradition, the square, circle and
triangle carry symbolic relationships between earth, sky and the space in between.

Khadivizand: In my work, fragmented and suspended triangles shift between order and instability, while
blue and black carry traces of hope and loss.

Khadivizand: Abstraction allows these forms and
colours to hold my experiences of displacement, connection and uncertainty without illustrating events directly.

In May, Trocadero Projects led a place-based public program, 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘶𝘮, on the Maribyrnong River to prac...
02/09/2026

In May, Trocadero Projects led a place-based public program, 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘶𝘮, on the Maribyrnong River to practise listening, reflect on place, and share knowledge. 85 Participants–alongside artists Aarti Jadu, Nicholas Burridge, and Geoff Robinson–joined us on a Tramboat departing from Footscray Wharf. 

Participants were led through three sessions throughout the day, including guided listening, performance artist talks, and conversations shared over food. Each session an exploration of listening as a way of connecting to the river and its unseen histories. 

Aarti Jadu led us through a 40-minute workshop to awaken our listening tools as we travelled along the river.  

Nicholas Burridge held a performative artist talk, where the river and sculptural artefacts from his practice became vehicles for travelling through time. 

Geoff Robinson performed 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, an iteration of a project that focuses on listening as a mode of attuning with water ecologies and their entanglements with plastic pollution. 

Thank you to the artists for sharing their insight, and ways of listening.  
 
AARTI JADU 
Nicholas Burridge 
Geoff Robinson 
 
This event was supported through Maribyrnong City Council’s Love Your West Grants Program. 

Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Thank you to everyone who joined us last Wednesday evening for the opening of our three new shows at Trocadero!The three...
30/08/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us last Wednesday evening for the opening of our three new shows at Trocadero!

The three new exhibits span across themes of memory, displacement, institutional structures, and lived experience through painting, printmaking, and installation.

They are now available for viewing until the 20th of September.

Gallery 1 – Samira Khadavisand | 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦

Gallery 2 – Journey Kelly | 𝘋𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘮𝘶 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢

Gallery 3 – Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon | 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery.

Level 1, 40 Leeds Street, Footscray.
Free entry, open Thursday to Sunday, 12–5pm.
We’d love to see you there!

Samira Khadivizand
journey
Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon
Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦...
18/08/2026

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. 

Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 by Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon in Gallery 3. 
 
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 examines rejection not as a personal failure, but as a structural condition shaped by institutional frameworks and access. Transforming polite, standardized rejection letters—accumulated from local art institutions—into trompe l’oeil acrylic paintings and sculptural stacks, the exhibition turns administrative 
coldness into a site of agency and contemplation. Spilling into Trocadero’s peripheral spaces, the project exposes how bureaucratic neutrality masks systemic hierarchies, 
positioning refusal as a lens through which artists from the Global South make invisible barriers visible and rewrite histories of absence, failure, and delay. 

— 

Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon (b. 1985, Thailand) is a Melbourne/Bangkok-based artist whose practice spans painting, installation, and conceptual platforms addressing memory, identity, and institutional silence in the Global South. A Silpakorn University graduate, he is known for Thai Message, an open-call intervention infiltrating Tate Modern’s restrooms, and The Air (2019). His solo 
exhibition Far From Home (2025) at Kingston Arts Centre explored migration. His work is held in the collection of MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum. 
 
Thitibodee Rungteerawattananon 
Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘋𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘮...
18/08/2026

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. 

Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘋𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘮𝘶 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢 by Journey Kelly in Gallery 2.  
 
This exhibition presents a collection of rust transfer prints - products of a highly experimental and unrefined chemical printing process, the unpredictability of which reflects the inner workings of memory and reconstruction. Bleach and rust are prevalent in my practice as I consider their thematic connections to absence and the deterioration of material being an archival practice in of itself, baring the marks of time. The residual nature of the transfer print suggests a transferring of history, of memory, of passing down. The rust solution both strips the original image and gives the print its pigment, reiterating themes of absence and presence, giving and taking. Degradation, agedness, wornness, blurredness. Immersed in a fog, in a crumbling - reconstructing time and place I no longer have access to. What is it about an image you cannot quite decipher? One that sits just out of reach? 

—

Journey is currently studying and creating in Naarm, though finds her printing practice tends to revolve around three main geographic points of connection to the ‘home’ - that is Darwin, Bali, and Geelong. She engages with atmospheric domesticity, drawn in by its imagery, the home acting as a site to retrieve from. Photographic family archives are a fundamental part of her practice as themes of ubiquity, memory, maternal nurture, familial love, history and reconstruction are all key elements to the works. Journey favours unrefined printing methods such as her self-developed rust transfers amongst others, interested in processes that reject perfection and embrace creative unknowns. 
 
journey 
Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦...
18/08/2026

Launching Wednesday 26th of August 6-8pm. 

Please join us at Trocadero Projects to celebrate the opening of 𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦 by Samira Khadivizand in Gallery 1.  
 
𝘔𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦 is not an illustration of events, but the residue of witnessing from afar. A prolonged state of limbo between distance and proximity, where painting becomes a site for the intangible. Emerging from the Samira’s diasporic experience of witnessing the ongoing war, repression, and violence in her homeland of Iran through mediated images, testimonies, and news, the work does not seek to represent events directly. Instead, it unfolds through a fractured visual language that moves between within and beyond, fragment and whole, order and disruption, giving material form to the unresolved psychological residue of witnessing from afar. 
 
— 

Samira Khadivizand (she/her) is an Iranian Australian interdisciplinary artist based in Melbourne. Her practice explores emotional and psychological dissonances shaped by transcultural identity and displacement. Drawing on classical Persian literature and architecture, she transforms symbolic meanings into abstract imagery to reflect on memory, identity, and belonging. 
 
Since migrating to Australia in 2010, Khadivizand has exhibited widely, she holds an MFA from RMIT University. Receiving multiple awards, including 
the 2025 ADFAS Award and NAVA Ignition Prize. 
 
Samira Khadivizand
Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

Join us for our next School of Troc visual poetry workshop with artist Liv Moriarty, where we will explore poetry as art...
11/08/2026

Join us for our next School of Troc visual poetry workshop with artist Liv Moriarty, where we will explore poetry as artwork, and artwork as poetry.

Through walking, looking, conversing and breaking down meaning, we will write short poems across a series of exercises – exploring diagramming, observation, relationality and alternate ways to convey information. We will explore what poetry can look like by considering the poetic potential of a variety of visual forms.

Saturday 22nd August 2026, 1–3pm
At Trocadero Projects: Level 1, 40 Leeds Street, Footscray VIC 3011.

Tickets are FREE but limited. Please book via the link in bio to secure your seat. Drinks and nibbles provided.

leg medicine


Trocadero Projects is supported by

This past July, exhibiting artist publista ran a washi paper making workshop in our studio space. In a world which often...
06/08/2026

This past July, exhibiting artist publista ran a washi paper making workshop in our studio space.

In a world which often seeks and grants instant gratification, the art of hand-making washi paper encouraged participants to slow down. The process being a reminder to fully immerse ourselves in the time consuming act of creation.

It’s your last chance to see publista’s paper work, amongst the other current exhibits, which close this Sunday 9th of August.

Gallery 1 – 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 | Haeminhae

Gallery 2 – 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 | publista

Gallery 3 – 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘮 | Ella Rizzi

Publista

Trocadero Projects is supported by Arts and Culture Maribyrnong.
Arts & Culture Maribyrnong City Council

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Melbourne, VIC

Opening Hours

Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

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