Mona Foma reveals huge 2021 lineup, with events taking place across 58 Tasmanian venues
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07.12.2020

Mona Foma reveals huge 2021 lineup, with events taking place across 58 Tasmanian venues

The Slag Queens - image by Reece Lyne
Words by Tom Parker

The festival takes place from Friday January 15 to Sunday January 24.

Tasmania’s revered Mona Foma is returning in January next year and it’s time to get your flights and accommodation sorted because the festival has just revealed their 2021 program.

Extending across both Launceston and Hobart, the 13th edition of Mona Foma will welcome more than 350 artists, 90% of which are from Tasmania. The festival’s events will boast smaller capacities so tickets will be a hot commodity but with the borders now open between Victoria and Tasmania, Melburnians can now make the trip.

Spread across 58 venues in the state’s two largest cities, Mona Foma will bring to life the likes of an old car museum, a zoo, an archery club, a power station, a labyrinth and a chairlift, among many other quirky landmarks.

To the festival program, and one of the most unmissable events is set to be the world premiere of Aqua Luma. Taking place in the breathtaking landscape of Launceston’s Cataract Gorge and developed by acclaimed audio-visual artist Robin Fox, the display will see 12-metre-high water jets projected into the sky accompanied by a laser light show and electronic compositions.

Also in the Gorge comes Chairway to Heaven, a transcendent event curated by artists Rachael Kim, Katerina Stathis and Mads Davey. Going down aboard the Gorge Scenic Chairlift, Chairway to Heaven will see the trio perform an evolving new composition for rare analogue synthesisers that honours nature and explores the ebb and flow of life cycles.

 

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Launceston will also be home to Acoustic Life of Boatsheds an event set to take festivalgoers on a journey along the Tamar and Esk Rivers. Presented by Burnie arts and social justice collective Big hART, see the rivers’ quirky boatsheds come to life with unique compositions celebrating each shed’s hidden culture and character.

Outside of that, Mofo Sessions will see the likes of The Broken Girls Club, Dinette & Confetti, Glenn Richards (Augie March), Luca Brasi, Mainlanders, United States of Amnesia, Slag Queens, Slaughterhäus Surf Cult and The Sin & Tonics perform evening concerts at either Hobart’s iconic Mona museum or Launceston’s Royal Park.

Then there’s ‘Til It’s Gone, an epic musical takeover of an old car museum. Curated by Mona’s Pippa Mott, the event will see artists Eloise Kirk, Tristan Jalleh and Kai Wasikowski infiltrate the unique space with installations, sculpture, video and site-specific interventions that suggest a world at wits’ end. This will be the last chance to witness the car museum before it’s torn down after the festival.

To cap off the festival highlights comes the opening and closing presentation of Relay / Country Remembers Her Names set to be performed at different locations across the state. From wukalina/Mount William and pilawaytakinta/Low Head, to Queenstown, Launceston and nipaluna/Hobart, foghorns, boat horns, sirens, voices, experimental instruments and other unique sound-making apparatus will connect across land and water in a presentation encouraging us to reflect on the land with which we stand.

Mona Foma goes down from Friday January 15 to Sunday January 24, with music and art taking place in Launceston from January 15 to 17 and in Hobart from January 22 to 24.

Head to the festival website for more info.

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