White Night Melbourne – Australia’s only all night celebration of culture and creativity and a genuine urban adventure returns for the fourth year for one night only on Saturday 20 February 2016 featuring local, national and international artists and works.
Embark on a journey of discovery through the heart of Melbourne, with music, food, film, art, and light. The 2016 program will present major Australian and international artists with performance, illuminations, art installations and music in and on some of Melbourne’s most iconic spaces including the Royal Exhibition Building, Federation Square, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne City Baths, Arts Centre, State Library, National Gallery, Melbourne Museum and ACMI.
Major White Night Melbourne commissions announced today include Circus Circus at the Melbourne Museum Plaza. Circus Circus will celebrate Victoria’s long history of circus with international and local artists performing for 12 exhilarating hours with gravity defying acrobatics, heart-stopping aerials and breathtaking feats of physicality, strength and daring.
Award-winning young Indigenous artist Josh Muir will present Still Here, an illuminating artwork telling a story of Aboriginal people in Victoria on the expansive façade of the National Gallery of Victoria. Acclaimed Melbourne artist Lisa Roet will bring her own vision of monkey magic with Golden Monkey to Melbourne Town Hall.
In a White Night Melbourne special collaboration, the Royal Exhibition Building will once again be transformed by Portuguese lighting and projection artists OCUBO, this time in partnership with the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative Pitcha Makin Fellaz reinterpreting traditional storytelling in an exciting contemporary project.
Melburnians will be invited to unlock Arts Centre Melbourne secrets and mysteries with two interactive installations that put the audience in control. Cmd Ctrl, Decipher will for one night only, from the forecourt podium, let audiences take command of this iconic landmark and create a 162 metre light show of their own.
Down below at the Melbourne City Baths, White Night favourite, Craig Walsh will empty the pool of bathers and transform it into an aquatic breeding ground with Incubator. From the Boogie Woogie and the Boogaloo to Bollywood or Ballroom, Breakdancing or Burlesque, the White Night dance marathon will be back. Trip The Light Fantastic for 12 hours of choreographed chaos in the massive open air dance floor of Birrarung Marr.
Federation Square will come under the spotlight within Wonderland as internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist Reko Rennie transforms Melbourne’s favourite meeting place into an electric canvas of light and sound with Federation. Grooves on Bourke Street for the cool cats and hip dudes and Live on Lonsdale will go live and loud with musos spanning pop to rock and everything in between for the night long.
In 2016 the precincts will include The Big Top at the Carlton Gardens, Royal Exhibition Buildings and Melbourne Museum. Northern Lights from Lonsdale Street north to RMIT, State Library of Victoria and the Melbourne City Baths. Monkey Business will incorporate the CBD, Flinders Lane and Bourke Street Mall, Wonderland will again be located at Flinders Street, Federation Square and Birrarung Marr and Southern Lights will include the NGV, Arts precinct, Alexandra and Queen Victoria Gardens.
Artistic Director Andrew Walsh AM commenting on his fourth White Night Melbourne program said: “In just 4 years White Night Melbourne has become the city’s largest and most loved public event and this year we promise many never before seen elements about Melbourne, made by Melburnians and reflective of Melbourne’s place in the world.”
“We’re really excited to have commissioned a range of original works from Melbourne and Victorian artists, as well as several international artists.”
White Night Melbourne is the city as you know it, turned on its head in a dusk ‘til dawn celebration of culture and creativity. A night where the surreal seems real, it is a rare opportunity to experience the city in a different light.
White Night Melbourne takes place on Saturday 20 February 2016 from 7.00pm to 7.00am. The full program will be available in late January 2016. For more information, visit: www.whitenightmelbourne.com.au for details.
Image: Reko Rennie – photo by Søren Solkær