Nicola Gunn's IN SPITE OF MYSELF Set for 2013 Melbourne Festival, 9-13 Oct.

Critically lauded and awarded Nicola Gunn takes audiences on a journey that is stranger than autofiction in her new show In Spite of Myself. Presented by Arts Centre Melbourne in association with Melbourne Festival from Wednesday 9 - Sunday 13 October, In Spite of Myself is a mind-bending, humorous and heartfelt exploration of Melbourne-based artist Nicola Gunn's (fictional) life's work.

It's opening night of Exercises in Hopelessness: Nicola Gunn (1979 - Present), a retrospective exhibition of one of the world's most preeminent performance artists Nicola Gunn. Transforming the Fairfax Studio into a liminal museum celebrating Nicola Gunn, including a wall-to-wall white gallery space in the foyer featuring a bounty of interactive and bizarre performance art works, In Spite of Myself explores the absurdities of performance art with wry humour and playfulness.

Part-performance, part-lecture, part-workshop and part self-help forum, In Spite of Myself is a satirical whirl of video, sculpture, illustration, photography, text, audience debate and live performance.

In Spite of Myself has been developed by Nicola Gunn and her multi-award winning artist collective Sans Hotel with the assistance of Arts Centre Melbourne's Artistic Development Program. Nicola Gunn and Sans Hotel are Arts Centre Melbourne's 2013 Artists in Residence.

Sans Hotel are known for creating ground-breaking and innovative work about the human experience, including the Green Room Award-winning At the Sans Hotel and Hello my name is.Led by Nicola Gunn and with collaborators Gwen Holmberg-Gilchrist, Pier Carthew, and Michael Fikaris, the group uses a multi-disciplinary approach to live art and contemporary performance. Drawing mainly from autobiographical events, Nicola Gunn has developed a unique mode of self-expression that is brave, funny and sad - and occupies a territory somewhere between fact and fiction.

This project is made possible with the generous support of the Australia Council and Arts Victoria. Nicola Gunn is one of the Australia Council's 2013 Creative Australia Fellowsand receipient of the Early Career ResidenCy Grant, which further supported her residency at Arts Centre Melbourne.

Accompanying Nicola Gunn's performance/exhibition/chicanery at 11am Saturday 12 October is a free, one-off participatory public forum, In Spite of Everything. Curated to discuss ideas relating to contemporary arts practice, and ideas not related to contemporary arts practice, it promises to be illuminating, provocative and amusing.

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