PA2018

The Performance Arcade is an acclaimed live art event that attracts 40,000 people every year to Wellington Waterfront since 2011. Audiences come for an exciting and diverse program of art, live music, and performance, installed within a special architectural arrangement of shipping containers that are stacked and arranged together to create an innovative new space for performance and arts presentation. This miniature festival offers new encounters between artists and public, creating a vibrant hub that activates the city and exposes communities to new ideas and cultural perspectives. The free admission and waterfront location makes it accessible to a broad community, developing empowered audiences and participants in the creative and cultural life of the city.


Using a series of architecturally arranged shipping containers, The Performance Arcade creates a series of spaces for installation, performance art, sonic art, interactive media, forums and live music. Opening onto the bustling life of the Wellington Waterfront, these sites of encounter engage the public in contemporary art and performance practices outside the familiar constraints of gallery or theatre spaces.

The Immersive Space Programme are pleased to bring Augmented Reality to The Performance Arcade featuring the work Pukana.

pūkana whakarunga!
gaze wildly to the realm above!
pūkana whakararo! 
gaze wildly to the realm below!

"Tamaki presents these works as a functional element of her curatorial process establishing a purposeful & relative response to the works of the selected artists showing in the group exhibition... the interactive AR & MR are unique artistic presentations & works - it's clever & insightful that she uses genuine artefacts from the Te Papa Collections"

Authenticity comes into question through the physical and virtual exhibition experience, as the selected museum taonga are all replicas of original artefacts - even in real-life they are in a sense unreal. Tamaki’s inclusion of the replicas in the exhibition suggests they are no less valuable as taonga.


artist - Suzanne Tamaki
producer - Joff Rae
manager - Finn Beattie
developer / content - James Norling
developer / creative - Ethan Wimsett
administration / design - Audrey Holyoake