HEART OF DARKNESS
EXCLUSIVE: FESTIVAL REVEALS NEW PRECINCT
A NEW city art district with giant fire-breathing sculptures, interactive installations and mind-bending performances will plunge Tasmanians into wintry darkness.
The Mercury can exclusively reveal festival behemoth Dark Mofo will create a Dark Downtown precinct in Hobart in place of previous iterations like Dark Park and Dark Path.
The announcement has come ahead of the official festival program launch scheduled for 10am Friday and includes The Character Ride — a surreal, modern sculpture that mimics people’s movements when they jump on top and go for a ride.
Creative director Leigh Carmichael said the freeentry zone would operate nightly from June 16-20 between Liverpool, Watchorn, Bathurst and Melville streets.
“This year we’ve created Dark Downtown in the CBD of Hobart, which will be a place to explore art after sunset,” he said.
“The free precinct, spread across three city blocks, will include exhibitions, lasers, fire, performance, film works and sculptures, with food vans and bars along the streets.
“We hope it will be enticing, interesting and alluring to audiences and encourage them to get outdoors, explore the streets at night, and see Hobart in a new light.”
Dark Mofo says the main artwork — Home State nipaluna — will be the first traditional hut of its kind built after the colonial invasion of First Nations peoples in Tasmania.
Kuwait artist Monira Al Qadiri will screen amateur VHS footage of burning oilfields from the First Gulf War, while sculptures titled Earth Deities of “false gods” enhanced by fire, electricity and destruction have been commissioned by Dark Mofo and created by Sri Lankan-Australian artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran.
An unusual living room will gradually disappear into a hole in the wall from Wednesday to Saturday in Slow Room by US artist Jonathan Schipper, and festival favourite Ogoh-ogoh will return for a flamey, cathartic purging ceremony – this year taking shape as ancient resurrection icon the green-lined ground beetle.
Dark Downtown Watchorn Street will run from 4pm, Melville Street from 5pm, and Liverpool and Bathurst streets from 6pm, all wrapping up at 11pm. Dark Mofo runs from June 16-22.