Lineup announced 6pm Friday 10 April 2015 AEDT at www.darkmofo.net.au
Antony and the Johnsons with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra registration at http://darkmofo.net.au/pre-sale-registration/
Tickets on sale 10am Monday 20 April 2015 AEDT from www.darkmofo.net.au
Since Neolithic times, communities have gathered on the winter solstice to face down the darkness and celebrate the return of the light. This June, Dark Mofo – the Museum of Old and New Art’s winter festival in Australia – celebrates ancient and contemporary mythology around the darkest night of the year, and presents opportunities to explore our shadow selves.
Last year, Dark Mofo attracted more than 130,000 people to events across 10 days in Hobart on the island state of Tasmania. This year, coinciding with the opening of Mona’s major exhibition curated by Nicole Durling and Olivier Varenne, Private Archaeology by Marina Abramović, Dark Mofo is also spreading its tentacles into new spaces around the state, with performances from around 250 artists hailing from a dozen different countries around the world.
Dark Mofo 2015 opening night on Friday 12 June unveils a new festival precinct called Dark Park at Hobart’s harbourside Macquarie Point, with large public artworks including the high-octane Fire Organ by German chemo-acoustic engineer Bastiaan Maris with producer Duckpond, the full-body sonic massage immersion of Bass Bath by Melbourne’s Byron J. Scullin in collaboration with Supple Fox, plus British-born American avant-garde artist Anthony McCall’s installations of light and fire works at Dark Park, as well as a Night Ship to prowl the river throughout the festival. You’ll hear it coming.
Hobart’s historic Odeon Theatre will host a queer and deliciously dark music program, featuring Australian exclusive performances of British award-winning torch singer Antony and the Johnsons with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and British art-pop collective The Irrepressibles, plus Arkansas doom metalheads Pallbearer, electro-conducting Japanoise-maker EYE, Rhode Island sludge metal duo The Body, dark Australian folkster and founder of The Drones, Gareth Liddiard, one-woman performance vocalist Kusum Normoyle, Seattle horror-country black-and-roller King Dude, Melbourne’s theatrical chanteuse Brous, dark electronic artist Jake Blood, German industrial dance occultists Oake, Melbourne’s agitated guitar rockers My Disco, smoky chillwave from Melbourne’s Klo and odd pop from Hobart’s Tiger Choir, plus Sydney indie-rock party-starters The Preatures.
Mid-week, road trip into the true heart of the Tasmanian winter with Wild at Heart; a two-night immersive art experience sleepover (June 15-17) within Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Presented by Cradle Mountain Hotel and Dark Mofo and curated by the Unconscious Collective (Motel Dreaming), Wild at Heart includes an exhibition opening of Remote Nature Response by Melbourne contemporary artist Ash Keating, and a dark and debaucherous banquet by British jellymongers and architectural foodsmiths, Bompas and Parr.
Dark Mofo Films launches at the Odeon with the red-carpet world premiere of the first adult drama television series filmed in Tasmania, The Kettering Incident, in a special double-episode screening before its Foxtel premiere later this year. Dark Mofo Films then continues at North Hobart’s century-old State Cinema with a selection of new Nordic dark folkloric films including A Second Chance, A Spell to Ward off the Darkness, Down Terrace, A Field in England, Partisan, Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America, Valhalla Rising, When Animals Dream, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, and more,in another confronting and cutting-edge program conjured by curators Nick Batzias and James Hewison.
An evolution of last year’s Future Hobart, The Hothouse is a 72-hour session demonstrating the power of creative thinking to explore new constructive approaches to the issues that impact on educational attainment and retention in Tasmania. In partnership with University of Tasmania, Clemenger Tasmania/OMD, City of Hobart and News Corp Australia, the Hothouse Session will be held inside a massive bamboo structure nesting along Salamanca Lawns, designed and built by Cave Urban Design Collective with University of Tasmania Masters of Architecture, with 12 ideas presented in an exhibition and a public forum at the Odeon Theatre.
Dark Mofo’s Bacchanalian community celebration, the City of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast, returns for a longer and lustier five nights of food, fire, music and performance, at Hobart’s dockside Princes Wharf Shed 1, this year spreading outside onto Salamanca Lawns and inside the Hothouse Structure. Curated by Gill Minervini with guest chefs Jake Kellie, Martin Boetz, Sean Moran, Mike McInerney and O Tama Carey and the Mona Source restaurant team, the Winter Feast climaxes on the solstice night with a demon-purging Balinese ogoh-ogoh parade making its way from Dark Park towards the Feast for a ritualistic burning of the community’s collective fears.
Contemporary theatre highlights include Virginia Woolf’s Orlando performed by Victoria’s THE RABBLE theatre company at Australia’s oldest theatre, the Theatre Royal in Hobart, plus a kooky take for ages six and over on Roald Dahl’s creepy The Witches at Salamanca Arts Centre’s Peacock Theatre. There are also select experiences of Funeral. Why wait until you’re dead?
More Dark Mofo visual arts highlights include Patricia Piccinini and Peter Hennessey’s The Shadows Calling at Hobart’s newest CBD cultural space, Detached; plus John Kelly’s Beyond Woop Woop with his new Antarctic paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; emerging Indigenous artist Tyrone Sheather’s Giidanyba (sky beings) inhabiting the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens; colonial death mementoes on display in Ashes to Ashes, curated by Scott Carlin and Lana Nelson, photography by Angela Waterson at Battery Point’s hauntingly beautiful Narryna Heritage Museum; Envelop(e), featuring sound and art from Julian Day, Mick Harris, Jason James, Elizabeth Veldon, Christina Kubisch, curated by Matt Warren at Contemporary Art Tasmania; Melbourne textile installation artist Douglas McManus’ Laundry of the Terminal Psyche at Clarence Council’s Rosny Barn; and after-dark installations, Radiant Heat by Lucy Bleach and Angry Electrons by Jason James at the Centre for the Arts (University of Tasmania) on the Hobart docks.
Music will ring in the darkness around the city, with New Orleans-based improvisational cellist and vocalist Helen Gillet as well as The Discovery Orchestra at the Museum of Old and New Art, plus Allison Bell with members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the Friends School Farrall Centre, the Witching Hour midnight concert series with Helen Gillet and Calvin Bowman at Hobart’s sublime St. David’s Cathedral, and an all-night multi-artist musical vigil with long-durational double bassist Nick Tsiavos and friends at the Peacock Theatre for the duration of the longest night of the year.
There’s also a new late-night ceremonial death dance curated by Supple Fox called Blacklist. You will want your name on it.
Dark Mofo builds up to the longest night and winter solstice (Monday 22 June, 2.38am) with the annual Nude Solstice Swim at sunrise (7.10am, Monday 22 June). Release your inhibitions with your clothes and go towards the light.
Dark Mofo Creative Director Leigh Carmichael said: “With the third iteration of Dark Mofo, we are pushing ourselves to the limit with a program that will challenge, disturb, excite, and hopefully enlighten our audience in some small way. We are expanding into a new precinct at Hobart’s harbourside Macquarie Point, with a project called ‘Dark Park’, which will house a number of large-scale art projects that will in turn push the audience to their limits.
“We’ll also be heading into the deep centre of Tasmania – Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park – for two nights of wilderness and wildness in a new project called ‘Wild at Heart’.
“We hope that an expansion of the Winter Feast to five nights, and an extension to midnight on Friday and Saturday, will allow more people to attend. With a limited number of pre-sales, we’re returning to a first in, best dressed approach, and are focusing on addressing some of the crowd management and ticketing issues from last year. There will be a lot of feasting and lots of fire, to light up the darkest nights in Australia.”
Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman said: “Dark Mofo is a cultural beacon in Tasmania’s darkest and coldest season. Winter had been a time of hibernation for many locals and a tourism black-spot…until Dark Mofo. Now, tens of thousands of locals and visitors are drawn to Dark Mofo, fast rewriting attitudes about winter in our country’s most southern state. Our Government is once again delighted to partner with Mona to deliver this wondrous winter event that is an essential part of our cultural landscape.”
Lord Mayor of Hobart, Alderman Sue Hickey said: “The City of Hobart is again very proud to host and support Dark Mofo in 2015. The local community and visitors have come to expect that mid winter in Hobart will be transformed by light and fire as they feast, talk and watch the spectacle that is Dark Mofo. This year’s festival again promises to surprise and tantalise us with new ideas and the transformation of many public spaces in our city. Please join us in the coldest part of the year to enjoy what has now become an internationally renowned cultural experience, further Hobart’s increasing reputation as a ‘must visit’ destination.”
Dark Mofo is a project of Mona supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania, and City of Hobart, Tourism Tasmania, plus many more valued partners.
Lineup announced 6pm Friday 10 June at www.darkmofo.net.au
Antony and the Johnsons with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra registration at http://darkmofo.net.au/pre-sale-registration/
Tickets on sale Monday 20 June from www.darkmofo.net.au
THE LINEUP
Marina Abramović: Private Archaeology
Antony and the Johnsons with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Anthony McCall
Patricia Piccinini
Peter Hennessey
City of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast
Blacklist
Wild at Heart
Bompas and Parr
Remote Nature Response: Ash Keating
Dark Park
The Hothouse
Fire Organ: Bastiaan Maris with Duckpond
Bass Bath: Byron J. Scullin with Supple Fox
Pallbearer
The Body
Oake
The Irrepressibles
Brous
Orlando: THE RABBLE
The Witches by Roald Dahl: David Woods + Luke Jeffries + Guy Edmonds
RBMA presents EYE: CIRCOM
My Disco
Kusum Normoyle
Jake Blood
The Preatures
Klo
Tiger Choir
Gareth Liddiard
King Dude
Laura Jean
Ogoh-ogoh
The Witching Hour (Midnight concert series)
Helen Gillet
Nick Tsiavos
Calvin Bowman
The Discovery Orchestra
Giidanyba: Tyrone Sheather
Radiant Heat: Lucy Bleach
Angry Electrons: Jason James
Dark Mofo Films
The Kettering Incident: world premiere
Allison Bell with members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Envelop(e): Julian Day, Mick Harris, Jason James, Elizabeth Veldon, Christina Kubisch, curated by Matt Warren
Unconscious Collective
John Kelly: Beyond Woop Woop
Laundry of the Terminal Psyche: Douglas McManus
Nude Solstice Swim
Funeral: The Guerrilla Museum
Ashes to Ashes: curated by Scott Carlin and Lana Nelson, photography by Angela Waterson
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/user/darkmofofestival/videos
SOCIAL:
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#darkmofo #discovertasmania
Rebecca Fitzgibbon | Mona Events Media Manager, Jane Menzies | Mona Media Coordinator, Delia Nicholls | Mona Research Cura
