By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Melbourne is a city that famously has more statues of animals than of women. Now plans are advancing to honour the late, great French-Australian artist Mirka Mora.
A statue of the bohemian artist and restaurateur, who died aged 90 in 2018, sitting gaily on a large mosaic mural seat that she created is under consideration. The mosaic seat is at St Kilda Pier.
Artist Mirka Mora at her mosaic chair at St Kilda Pier circa 2010. A statue is planned in her honour. Credit: Serge Thomann
“We will have a 40-year-old Mirka instead of a 90-year-old Mirka,” said councillor Serge Thomann, a friend of Mora’s for decades after they met buying French newspapers at a local newsagency.
Decades ago, Mora was commissioned to make a mosaic seat, which has gained a new life following St Kilda pier’s refurbishment.
Mirka Mora in 1955Credit: Courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art .
“It would be nice to have Mirka sitting there so we can all remember her how she used to be,” Thomann said. “People could sit next to her and take selfies.
“We want to celebrate Mirka as a St Kilda icon. We have got her art everywhere.”
The Mirka Mora estate was fully supportive, he said.
Mora, a concentration camp survivor, and husband Georges were central to Melbourne culture upon emigrating from France to Melbourne in 1951, choosing it over Casablanca and Saigon.
In July, we brought you news that St Kilda’s Tolarno Hotel in Fitzroy Street had sold for about $6 million.
The property included the restaurant where the Moras entertained the 1960s Melbourne elite with ebullient bohemian performances that shaped the city’s cultural and culinary life.
“[Son] William Mora told me he got his sex education hiding under the tables because there were multiple performances on a Saturday night,” former owner James Fagan told us.
“She cut the tops out of her dress … when you went to pay the bill, there were these big nipples protruding out at you.”
The Moras were friends with famed modern artist Sidney Nolan and prominent modern art patrons John and Sunday Reed, who founded artists’ colony Heide and frequented the Moras’ city restaurants, which the couple ran before moving to St Kilda.
Gordan Marolt, who owns various backpacker accommodation companies, turned out to be the local buyer of the Tolarno.
“A councillor has suggested we fund a statue honouring the late iconic St Kilda artist Mirka Mora,” Port Phillip Council Mayor Louise Crawford told CBD. “This proposal will be considered as part of our 2025/26 budget process, which begins soon.”
All change at Chaddy
There has been much fanfare surrounding the new fresh-food Market Pavilion at Melbourne’s $6 billion Chadstone shopping centre, which opens in March, boasting 50 shops, including Brunetti Oro, Vic’s Meats, Green Cup Canteen, The Fishmonger, Flowers Vasette, Yo-Chi, Papa Rich and Sushi Sushi.
Well, having spent four days trapped at the shopping centre before Christmas for a story, we’re excited. Just don’t accuse us of Stockholm syndrome.
An artist’s illustration of Chadstone’s new Market Pavilion, which includes an overhauled Dining Laneway.
But what is less known is that the expansion will also encompass, for the first time, paid parking at the famous shopping complex.
A new “fresh food parking” option will start on March 27, where punters will have to start – gasp – shelling out cash to park after the first two hours in a section of the car park closest to the pavilion.
The centre’s billionaire main owner, John Gandel, said last year that of all his business achievements, he was most proud of Chadstone.
“Often, I will walk through the mall or sit in the food court and just watch the people around me,” he said. “They are happy, they are relaxed. It’s a nice place to be, and it gives me great pleasure to see this.”
But wait, there’s further revolution in store.
“Chadstone’s joint owners, Gandel Group and Vicinity Centres, acknowledge the iconic destination has reached a pivotal moment in its history where its brand and value, can be encapsulated in one word: Chadstone,” the centre notes in a release.
“The rebrand marks the precinct’s evolution as it retires ‘The Fashion Capital’ tagline that defined it for a generation.” As far as revolutions go, that’s got to be at Do You Hear the People Sing? levels.
Behaviour warning
Parliament tends to have a feral “last days of school” vibe during the end of a parliamentary term. Senate estimates, where our elected representatives take great pleasure in bullying the only people in Canberra dorkier than them – public servants – has a feral vibe at all times.
This week’s sessions were particularly heated, prompting the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service’s chief executive, Leonie McGregor, to warn senators to fix their behaviour.
“Over the course of the current Senate Estimates hearings, the PWSS has observed behaviour by a small number of senators which is not respectful, courteous, or aligned with the behaviour codes so recently endorsed by this Parliament,” McGregor wrote.
McGregor went on to remind senators of their obligations under the new behaviour code for parliamentarians, regarding respect, diversity and prohibited behaviour.
So what exactly triggered that reprimand from parliament’s behaviour cops? The support service said the letter wasn’t in response to any particular incident.
This week environment and communications committee chair Karen Grogan warned her colleagues about “badgering” public servants.
And an increasingly heated exchange between Liberal National senator James McGrath and Foreign Minister Penny Wong over antisemitism escalated into a shouting match.
McGrath, we hear, has been particularly fired up all week. But he didn’t take up CBD’s offer to share some of that fire with us. We’re sure they will all be on their best behaviour once the election campaign kicks off.
Ties that bind
Meanwhile in Sydney, there has been a twist in the tale of local newspaper The Daily Telegraph’s undercover investigation into antisemitism.
CBD can reveal that Ofir Birenbaum, the man who wore a Star of David cap at popular inner-west joint Cairo Takeaway while a crew from the News Corp tabloid waited outside, is a card-carrying member of the Australian Labor Party.
Labor sources say Birenbaum, who was contacted for comment via his lawyer, late last year joined the same inner-city branch as Environment Minister and Labor left icon Tanya Plibersek.