Inner West Council x Biennale of Sydney

This major creative collaboration celebrates the artists, voices, and stories of Sydney’s Inner West. Across a series of performances, talks, and music events at White Bay Power Station, the program invites audiences to experience the creative energy of the Inner West on a global stage.

Announcing: Inner West × Biennale of Sydney 2026 Artists and Curators

Inner West Council is proud to announce the artists and curators selected for our Biennale of Sydney 2026 program at White Bay Power Station.

Our Music and Talks programs will be curated by powerhouse voices Niriko McLure (Music) and Lillian Ahenkan aka Flex Mami (Talks) — each bringing their distinctive vision and showcasing incredible Inner West talent.

Working Memory, Inner West Council’s major performance commissions, will see six bold new works developed by local artists and collectives. Selected through a highly competitive Expression of Interest process, these commissions represent the diversity, innovation, and creative excellence that define our community. Learn more about the artists and their projects before they hit the studios to develop these exiting new works. 

Full program and bookings to be announced on 3 Feb 2026.

Working Memory

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 April, 2026, White Bay Power Station

Embedded in the walls of White Bay Power Station is the labour of those who brought it to life, and those who kept the lights on in Sydney. The thousands of workers contributed more than bricks, mortar and coal to the building — they infused it with energy, connection, and care for one another. Working Memory is a program of experimental performance works by Inner West artists, reflecting on the site’s history, memory, and the traces of those who came before.

Performances include: 

Enter the wayward (Amrita Hepi) is interested in the choreography of waterways. Working with a dramaturgy that blends human and non-human, voice and gesture, the fake and the authentic, Hepi explores what it means to build on water and how we choreograph ourselves into it Curated by Zoe Theodore. More here

Found; Missing Archives (Cynthia Florek, Lulu Barkell, Oliver Durbidge - Highly Strung Puppets, Theodore Carroll) is an immersive performance exploring ancestral memory, intergenerational labour, and the community that may emerge through shared oppression. Hand-crafted puppets made from re-used materials embody living archives, with storytelling led by First Nations, CALD, and BIPOC artists, centering worker solidarity and collective Rememory. More here

Housekeeping (Red Rey, Kit Wu-Bylett) is a roving performance by Red Rey and Kit Wu Bylett, exploring the invisible labour of diaspora Filipinx workers. Through embroidered towels, gesture, and ritualised care, the work honours unseen service bodies. Audience members receive and return offerings in a participatory act of witnessing, vulnerability, and mutual recognition. More here

Pulse and Pressure (Jacqui O’Reilly, James Peter Brown and guests) transforms the Boiler Room into a site for deep listening with song, gesture and live sound design. An electroacoustic score, transmitted via radio waves and broadcast through HD headphones, invites audiences to reflect on new forms of energy and harmonic force through sensing sound and venerating place. More here

Tarantismo (Lauren Brincat) is a site responsive procession that weaves sound, movement, and textile through White Bay Power Station. Inspired by folk ritual and industrial memory, it transforms architecture into a living score, animated by choreography, live music, and falling fabric. A collective gesture of resistance, remembrance, and spatial transformation unfolds. Curated by Zoe Theodore. More here

Workers' Wives (Body of Work). Electrifying female domestic feats! In this site-specific performance, Body of Work illuminate the invisible labour of the White Bay Power Station’s workers’ wives. How could the city have been powered without them? Workers’ Wives reauthors the legacy of the White Bay Power Station through a queer feminist lens. Artists include: Charlotte Farrell, Emma Maye Gibson, Megan Holloway, Imbar ‘Imbi’ Nassi and TESH. More here

Inner West Ideas with Flex Mami

Saturday 28 March, White Bay Power Station

Curated and hosted by Lillian Ahenkan (FlexMami)—intersectional cultural synthesiser, creator, author, astrologer and professional informal people watcher—these panel discussions will spark curiosity and connection. Hear the wisdom of the local artists, doers and storytellers who have made the improbable, possible. Rooted in the themes of Rememory, the talks will balance complex ideas with moments of joy and care—amplifying diverse voices and local stories within a global context. 

"Hear the wisdom of the local artists, doers and storytellers who have made the improbable, possible simply by existing (and living to share the process)!" - Lillian Akenkan

Read more about Lillian here

Inner West Music curated by Niriko McClure

Friday 17 April, Friday 24 April & Friday 1 May, White Bay Power Station

Niriko McLure, Artist Manager and Creative Producer at Third Person Management and co-curator of the Bigsound conference 2025, will curate the IWC x Biennale of Sydney Music series. White Bay will come alive with the rhythm of the Inner West in a three-night music series that brings the backstreets of Marrickville to the heart of the Biennale of Sydney.

"Bringing new voices together with some of the country’s finest performers in a venue of this calibre offers a powerful chance to connect, inspire, and celebrate the creative energy that music sparks in all of us." - Niriko McClure

Part of the 25th Biennale of Sydney's Art After Dark program.

Read more about Niriko here

 

Getting to White Bay Power Station

Placemaking NSW X Biennale of Sydney Travel Access Guide (PDF 1.3MB)