Hobart ready for seventh annual MONA FOMA

Beginning on Thursday, Hobart’s seventh annual MONA FOMA - the Museum of Old and New Art's Festival of Music and Art – is set to present four days of cutting-edge music, experimental and interactive installations, large-scale public art projects, and late-night parties.

Running from 15th to 18th January, the centrepiece of this year’s event MONA FOMA is the Exxopolis luminarium (pictured below) a large-scale inflatable sculpture of light and colour.

Installed on the PW1 forecourt, the Exxopolis features tunnels and caverns, with colours changing according to the intensity of the sun.

Exxopolis also features a special MOFO-commissioned musical composition by Jim Moginie, exploring the connections between music and colour. Jim and his guitar-toting mates will appear for random live performances within the luminarium as well.

Musically, MONA FOMA will offer Syrian techno, Iranian piano, Brooklyn avant-jazz, Icelandic sound art, Baltimore electronica, German noise, Canadian psychedelia and Indian raga.

Highlights will include performances by seminal J-pop riot grrrls Shonen Knife, acclaimed New York post-punk rockers Swans, cabaret punk Amanda Palmer (with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra), Baltimore electronic composer Dan Deacon, Swedish black metal band Marduk, Australian-Icelandic post-classical composer Ben Frost, and Vermont indie-pop act Zammuto (featuring special guest Gotye).

Legendary Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly will present The Merri Soul Sessions featuring Dan Sultan, Clairy Browne, Kira Puru and Vika & Linda Bull; and Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie will perform The Colour Wheel with his Electric Guitar Orchestra featuring members of The Celibate Rifles, Youth Group, Good Buddha and Decoder Ring.

In performing arts, MONA FOMA will present a range of intriguing artists.

Performer Lucas Abela and Yogyakarta experimental musical duo Senyawa combine pinball and Indonesian gamelan instrumentation for their interactive musical installation Gamelan Wizard while Speak Percussion artistic director Eugene Ughetti will team up with MOFO laser wizard Robin Fox to present the electro-percussive works Transducer and Mikrophonie 1.

Click here for more information on MONA FOMA 2015.

Exxopolis image courtesy of John Owens, Architects of Air, and MONA FOMA, 2015.

17th January 2013 - MONA FOMA TAKES CENTRE STAGE