2014 Dark Mofo dates announced

Remi Chauvin - image courtesy of the artist and MONADarkness is spreading across Tasmania, as the Museum of Old and New Art’s winter festival Dark Mofo returns in June 2014 to celebrate the dark through large-scale public art, food, music, light and noise.

Since Neolithic times, seasonal winter solstice rites have been held around the longest night and the shortest day, to face the darkness and celebrate the light. Last year, MONA’s inaugural winter festival attracted more than 128,000 people to events across 10 days in Hobart.

This year, the celebration – of both ancient and contemporary mythologies, birth and death, fire and light, culture and community – extends from Hobart north to include Launceston.

Hobart: 12 – 22 June
Building up to the solstice and the Nude Solstice Swim, Dark Mofo in Hobart will feature the Winter Feast at the waterfront (19 – 21 June), a large-scale public artwork to light up the winter night, the ‘Mona till Midnight’ opening of MONA’s winter exhibition, a curated Dark Mofo Films program, the usual after-hours debauchery of Dark Faux Mo, plus performances, installations, and much more.

Launceston: 20 June – 5 July
Kicking off with the solstice and the Nude Solstice Swim, Dark Mofo in Launceston will feature the Winter Feast at Inveresk (27 – 28 June), a large-scale public artwork to light up the winter night, a curated Dark Mofo Films program, a healthy dose of Dark Faux Mo hedonism for the north, art exhibitions, durational performance, and much more.

“We are in the final stages of locking down our 2014 program, and will present the lineup in April,” says Dark Mofo Creative Director Leigh Carmichael.

“For now, we are putting the dates out there for those wishing to travel from interstate so they can book flights and organise their accommodation. We encourage Tasmanian residents to invite their friends and family from around Australia to join us for the Winter Feasts in both Hobart and Launceston, so they can enjoy the celebrations and darkness with us. Of course if the feast is not their thing, there is always the Nude Swim on the 22nd June at sunrise.”

This winter, Tasmania celebrates the coldest, darkest, longest night in Australia. Immerse yourself in the shadows and lionize the light with Dark Mofo 2014.

For more information, visit: www.darkmofo.net.au for details.

Image: Remi Chauvin – courtesy of the artist and MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Hobart