Dark Mofo will celebrate ten years of darkness when it returns to Hobart this June.
A celebration of public art, live music, performance, and nocturnal revelry, Dark Mofo 2023 aims to deliver a sense of exaltation in the coldest, darkest time of the year.
The 2023 event will be the last for Founder and Creative Director Leigh Carmichael. Dark Mofo will putt out all the stops with exclusives, new artwork commissions, the return of Dark Park, Night Mass, and the masquerade ball.
“We’re excited to announce our tenth Dark Mofo lineup today. The last few years have been challenging, and heavily impacted by COVID, so to finally be in a position to again release a full two-week festival programme feels overwhelming,” Creative Director Leigh Carmichael says.
“The tenth edition will include the return of Dark Park, a large-scale art programme, eight nights of Winter Feast and a massive music programme. Night Mass will be expanded to five nights and will be Dark Mofo’s wildest party in our ten year history. While visitors can expect old favourites, we also have a few new surprises to unfurl.
“This year's festival will be a reflection of the past decade, and while much has changed, our desire to celebrate the longest nights and embrace winter in Tasmania hasn’t wavered. We can’t wait to light the fires again this June.”
Venues for 2023 include the Odeon Theatre, In The Hanging Garden, Altar, Dark Park, Federation Concert Hall, Princes Wharf 1, MAC2, the Goods Shed, MyState Bank Arena, the Baha’i Centre, Hobart Town Hall, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Tasmania, Good Grief Studios, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart Library, and Long Beach in Sandy Bay.
Opening things up is The Gathering, taking over the In The Hanging Garden’s Cathedral and Odeon Theatre, featuring First Nations artists BARKAA, Tasman Keith, dameeeela, DENNI, MARLON X RULLA, Uncle Dougie Mansell, Katarnya Maynard, Rob Braslin, and many more.
Composer Max Richter presents two double-billed performances of ‘VOICES’ a composition in dozens of languages reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with ‘Recomposed’ – his complete reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’.
Tasman Keith - Image © Ben Hunt
Elsewhere in the realm of week one’s music programme, attendees can check out Thundercat (USA), Witch (USA), Ethel Cain (USA), Black Flag (USA), Drab Majesty (USA), Bitumen (AUS), Eartheater (USA), Fulu Miziki (COD), Tasman Keith (AUS), Laurel Hall (USA) and more.
Night Mass: Exstasia is the festival’s epic late-night event, this year bigger than ever, taking over three city blocks with artworks, performances, cocktail lounges, punk theatre, cinema cabarets, clubs, and junkyard raves.
Things get artsy with the week one art and performance programme. There’s a new commission from Dark Mofo favourites United Visual Artists (UK) – ‘Silent Symphony’. Plus, two new commissions from Marty artist Curtis Taylor (AUS) with video work Ngarnda (pain) referencing blood rituals, cultural rites and lived experience, and Boong, a multi-media installation exposing racial violence.
Without Us You Would Have Never Learnt About Love by Jason Phu (AUS) is an installation featuring hundreds of jailbroken musical toys forming a tragic opera about consumption and materialism.
There’ll be an ambitious array of exhibitions around Hobart, with TWIST opening at Tasmanian Museum And Art Gallery, a major exhibition exploring Dickensian themes relevant to Tasmania’s history.
Plimsoll Gallery at UTAS will open Interfacial Intimacies, presenting a series of portraits and anti-portraits confronting the tensions of our networked personalities – our shadows, our masks, our shame.
Hobart Library will present Stories After Dark, unearthing the mysteries of the past in the library after dark, where hidden collections, records and artefacts are illuminated for a night of storytelling and performance.
The City Of Hobart Dark Mofo Winter Feast continues into the festival’s second week. Plus, the annual Ogoh-Ogoh ritual returns with The Purging at Mac Point. Attendees can write their fears down on paper, banishing them into the belly of the massive, sculptural, sacrificial totem. This year, it’s a duck-billed platypus!
Nude Solstice Swim - Image © Rosie Hastie
Dark Park returns too, acting as a home base to enjoy during the festival period. There’ll be art installations and a cosy lounge bar, with intimate performances.
Heading into week two, the music continues with Max Richter (DEU) presenting ‘Sleep’, an eight-and-a-half hour composition based on the neuroscience of sleep.
Plus there’s Trentemøller (DNK), King Woman (USA), Molchat Dom (BLR), three nights of electronic exploration in Borderlands, Loraine James (GBR), Corin (AUS) and more.
Of course, the art and performances continue into week two – Florentina Holzinger (AUT) presents the Australian exclusive performance of ‘A Divine Comedy’, a large-scale theatrical performance consisting of a cast of 17 female performers, over 2 hours.
‘Hello Dankness’ is a 70-minute film from experimental film duo Soda Jerk (AUS) bearing witness to the psychotropic spectacle of American politics from 2016 to 2021. Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth (USA), Alan Licht (USA), and Ulrich Krieger (DEU) will join forces for ‘Text Of Light’, presenting an improvised live soundtrack to accompany Stan Brakhage’s 1974 experimental time-lapse film.
The rituals continue into week two like Winter Feast and Dark Park, and Ogoh-Ogoh will be transported in a procession across the waterfront to The Burning at Mac Point, releasing fears by fire. Plus, the Nude Solstice Swim returns, welcoming back the sun after the longest night, offering renewal and resurrection to the 2,000 or so courageous participants.
Dark Mofo takes place around Hobart from 8-22 June.
