MONA FOMA announces 2014 lineup

Tyondai Braxton_HIVE_photo_Jacklyn MedugaTasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art has kicked off its annual Festival of Music and Art, where MONA‘s creative chaos spills out all over Hobart in a most unpredictable way.

MONA FOMA is back, but not as you know it, skipping across the Port of Hobart and anchoring down at Macquarie Wharf (MAC1 and MAC2 to you) for the first time.

Featuring two stages, three orchestras, more than 200 artists and four hours’ sleep a night (okay, so that hasn’t changed), this MOFO program is all over the place. On purpose.

There’s a dancing robot, a free-styling philosopher, prog-punk space opera, morning meditation, black metal with violins, gender liberationists, ambient electronica, string quartet protest music, a Krautrock pioneer, bluegrass Bach, improvised pipe organ, and the usual Bacchanalian nightclub mayhem of Faux Mo. Oh, and lasers. You know there will be lasers.

Since the first MONA FOMA in 2009, the five-day party has grown to become Tasmania’s largest – and what some consider Australia’s best – contemporary music festival (Helpmann Awards 2012), showcasing a broad range of art forms, including sound, noise, dance, theatre, visual art, performance and new media.

Curated by Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes, The Break) with MONA senior curators Nicole Durling and Olivier Varenne, MONA FOMA is a festival designed to inspire new experiences in music and art.

Continuing MONA’s egalitarian philosophy, the MOFO 2014 program is pretty out there… but we trust you’ll find a way. We’re making it easy for you.

“Music is around us everyday, everywhere, whether we want it or not. Some people are lucky to find ‘their’ music to play or for listening at least once in their lifetime,” says Brian Ritchie, MONA FOMA Curator.

“Others are not so lucky. MOFO is a curatorial gambling operation that aspires to increase your odds by widening options.”

MONA is Australia’s unique art experience and MOFO is the perfect time to visit Hobart for a museum and festival double-up. Go all-in, MOFOs. This one’s got a wide winning margin.

MONA FOMA runs from 15 – 19 January 2014. For more information, visit: www.mofo.net.au for details.

Image: Tyondai Braxton: HIVE photo by Jacklyn Meduga