Dark Mofo is back for 2019 with the festival’s first program announcement and it’s looking pretty good.
The celebration of music and art, thrown by Tasmania’s MONA gallery is known for being full of art, indie tunes, and some solid food choices. It will run this year from Thursday June 6th to Sunday June 23rd.
The sometimes controversial festival’s full lineup will drop in a week but in the meantime we have details of the first chapter.
This year will kick off with a symposium of ‘Dark + Dangerous Thoughts’ exploring themes of fear, sex, class, and race.
The symposium will have Aussie speakers: Yumi Stynes, Luke McGregor and Nakkiah Lui, along with international guests: Jennifer Boylan, Frederic Martel, and Martie Haselton.
Rocker Sharon Van Etten will take to the Odeon Theatre with her latest record Remind Me Tomorrow.
There will also be exhibitions from Julie Gough, Paul Yore and Simon Denny to open the festival.
The works will reflect issues like colonialism, love, and industrial mining as well as data collection and augmented reality.
And of course, Paul Yore will share a technicolour chapel so we can worship Dolly Parton and Justin Bieber, because why not really.
Last year Australian performance artist, Mike Parr was sealed in a container below a Hobart main road for three days. Parr will return for this year’s festival, this time, blindfolded with a live video feed in a secret location.
Plus in true Dark Mofo fashion there’ll be a “Tunnel no one wanted that takes you somewhere you didn’t want to go”.
Last year’s Dark Mofo Festival copped some backlash after they installed inverted red crosses around Hobart, upsetting local Christians.
The Hobart Mayor Ron Christie threatened to cut funding to the festival saying, “Hobart is a community city, and it’s Hobart, not Mobart.” The festival responded with MONA owner, David Walsh saying, “If we acquiesce to curatorial influence and become tame, the festival will die in three years, so the money will be irrelevant.”
Creative Director Leigh Carmichael added, “It’s deeply concerning when community leaders attempt to censor art with cheap threats to cut funds.”
According to reports by the ABC, the cross display will return to Dark Mofo this year but organisers are considering not inverting them this year so as to avoid similar controversy.
The full program will be revealed on Friday April 12.
Dark Mofo Festival 2019
Thursday 6th — Sunday 23rd June
Hobart, Tasmania
