MOFO LINE-UP P10-11
WALSHY’S IDEAS TO DIE FOR
PANELLISTS including a former jihadist, a Black Lives Matter leader, an indigenous prisoner rights activist and an elite Australian soldier will discuss “ideas worth dying for” — including cultural hunting rights, saving Catholicism, and justified killing — at Dark Mofo this winter.
The details of Dark Mofo’s new Prelude Weekend (June 8-11) were released yesterday, including the speakers for the three-day Dark and Dangerous Thoughts symposium of ideas, film and performance.
The weekend will kick off on Friday with Canadian Inuk throat-singer and indigenous activist Tanya Tagaq performing a live score to an Odeon Theatre screening of the 1922 silent film Nanook of the North.
The panel discussions begin on Saturday the 9th, headlined by the Ideas Worth Dying For session featuring Mona owner David Walsh, Dark and Dangerous Thoughts curator Laura Kroetsch, Black Lives Matter president Hawk News- ome, indigenous prisoner rights advocate Vickie Roach, former Tamil Tiger Niromi de Soyza, animal rights lawyer Shatha Hamade and decorated Australian soldier Mark Donaldson.
Tagaq will be interviewed by Jeff Sparrow for Angry Inuk; while other panels will discuss asylum seekers ( Do We Let Them In?), Indigenous incarceration ( Dying For Time), and animal rights ( Killing For Culture).
On Sunday the 10th, Paul Collins, David Marr and Barney Zwartz will ask Should The Church Be Saved?; former jihadist turned peace activist Muhammad Manwar Ali will be interviewed for The Place Of Doubt; David Walsh will discuss Death And Taxes with entrepreneur Dick Smith and economist Saul Eslake; and panels will explore the concepts of Extreme Free Speech and Sanctioned Killing.
Dark Mofo’s new Prelude Weekend will also feature the grand opening of Mona’s new
exhibition, ZERO, which brings together major works from Germany’s post-WWII Zero movement in Australia for the first time.
The free on-site opening party on Saturday June 9 will feature live music by legendary US avant-garde space-jazz ensemble the Sun Ra Arkestra and Sydney rock string quartet FourPlay; plus the unveiling of two new permanent artworks:
Spectrum Chamber by US light artist Charles Ross, and Wind
Section Instrumental by Mel- bourne-based Mona favourite Cameron Robbins.
The previous night, Friday June 8, will see the after-dark opening of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s new exhibition A Journey to Free
dom — a collection of installations, sculptures, videos, photographs and virtual reality works that explore incarceration from a range of different cultural and historical perspectives.
As part of the opening party, Hobart-based sound art- ist Matt Warren will stage a three-hour live performance responding to the exhibition.
The Prelude Weekend will also see swimmers take to the Hobart Aquatic Centre pool on June 9 for Landing: a 24-hour marathon relay designed to let volunteers “physically experience distance and participate in a policy of exile” by cumulatively swimming the distance between Australia and Manus Island — some 431km.
For details and bookings go to www.darkmofo.net.au