Darkness reigns for the next fortnight, as the Museum of Old and New Art’s winter festival, Dark Mofo 2014, launches to celebrate the dark through large-scale public art, food, music, light, film and noise, over the next fortnight.
Last year, MONA’s inaugural winter festival attracted more than 128,000 people to events across 10 days in Hobart. This year the fire burns deeper; occupying historic and underutilised spaces around Hobart such as the Town Hall Underground, Prince of Wales Battery, Narryna Heritage Museum, the Old Mercury Building, and MONA’s new festival hub, The Odeon Theatre.
Dark Mofo 2014 features the only Australian shows of avant-garde performer Diamanda Galás, American doom pioneers Sunn O))) and Earth, David Lynch muse Chrysta Bell, the MONA-commissioned Tim Passes features Dean Stevenson and a 33-piece orchestra putting museum owner David Walsh’s late brother’s poems to music, and Dark Mofo Films running throughout – featuring new incendiary Australian films biting into our nation’s dark heart – with filmmakers present at most screenings.
Dark Mofo is at its heart a public art festival, so head toward the lights; go to the waterfront to engage with Articulated Intersect, the large-scale public artwork by Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Washing River 2014 by Chinese contemporary artist Yin Xiuzhen’s (尹秀珍) 6,000 litre ice sculpture, and provide your feedback on Acconci Studio’s concept plans for the Future Hobart 2014 public space project.
Other wintry highlights include the three-night Bacchanalian banquet, the City of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast, with its 60-ft ‘Ferris Wheel of Death’, the MONA till Midnight mystery event, plus after-hours debauchery at Dark Faux Mo and Grimoire, performances, installations, exhibitions, and much more, all building up to the winter solstice (8.51pm, June 21) with the annual Nude Solstice Swim the next morning to welcome back the light.
Celebrate the dark and lionise the light with Dark Mofo 2014. See the full program online: www.darkmofo.net.au
+ DARK MOFO 2014 +
WEDNESDAY JUNE 11
DAILY SCHEDULE
5PM | MEMORIAM BY AMELIA ROWE AT ROSNY BARN
Taxidermy and personal narrative come together as Launceston-based artist Amelia Rowe transforms the historic Rosny Barn into a walk-in memento mori, and a place to contemplate the relationship between humans and animals. Presented by Clarence City Council and Dark Mofo.
OPENS: Dark Mofo special event: Wednesday June 11, 5pm
CONTINUES: Open Friday June 6 – Sunday June 29 (Tues-Fri 11am-4pm + Sat-Sun noon-4pm)
WHERE: Rosny Barn, Rosny
ENTRY: Free www.darkmofo.net.au/program/amelia-rowe-memoriam
6PM | 50 WAYS TO KILL RENNY KODGERS BY THE TWILIGHT GIRLS AND RENNY KODGERS AT CONTEMPORARY ART TASMANIA
The Twilight Girls (collaborative duo Helen Hyatt-Johnston and Jane Polkinghorne) and Mark Shorter create a collaborative confrontation performance and exhibition paying homage to classic film and television horror scenes using B- and Z-grade techniques in a restaging of famously gory cinematic moments. Politically incorrect references undermine notions of celebrity and beauty in a game of grotesque, overplayed one-upmanship in this Contemporary Art Tasmania and Dark Mofo co-presented show.
PERFORMANCE: Wednesday June 11, 6pm
EXHIBITION: Daily during Dark Mofo, noon-5pm. Exhibition continues Wednesday-Sunday until July 6, noon – 5pm.
WHERE: Contemporary Art Tasmania, 27 Tasma St, North Hobart
ENTRY: Free. www.darkmofo.net.au/program/50-ways-to-kill-renny-kodgers
9PM | THE ROVER [DARK MOFO FILMS OPENING NIGHT] AT STATE CINEMA [MA15+]
Opening night of Dark Mofo Films is determined to unsettle your sense of Australian identity, opening with director David Michôd’s new film, The Rover, with an introduction by executive producer Vince Sheehan.
A decade after a catastrophic western economic collapse, Eric travels the desolate roads of the Australian outback. From the acclaimed writer and director of Animal Kingdom comes a dark vision of a dangerous near future: a dangerous, dystopian western and grim tale of revenge. Based on a story by David Michôd and Joel Edgerton, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson.
WHEN: Wednesday June 11, 9pm – with introduction by executive producer Vince Sheehan
WHERE: State Cinema
ENTRY: $16 / $18 from www.darkmofo.net.au/program/dark-mofo-films/films/the-rover
PHOTOS https://www.flickr.com/gp/67221831@N08/PaUv8v/
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1reeaAiynw
Twitter: @dark_mofo
Instagram: @dark_mofo
Facebook: @darkmofofestival
Hashtags:
#darkmofo
#discovertasmania
Rebecca Fitzgibbon, Events Media Manager. Delia Nicholls, research curator and Mona Media Manager
